Hogwarts trought Jessica Thompon's eye
by Peixoto
Summary: Marauder Era fic. Jessica and Lily are best friends and going on their 7th year at Hogwarts. J/L romance, plus a lot more, all viewed by Jessica. Lots suspense and tension. Highly addicting fic! Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

It was Thursday morning, Jessica Thompson was waiting by the window, her big blue eyes wide open searching the sky, a little boy was sitting right next to her doing the same thing, that was William Thompson eight years old little brother. They lived in a medium class neighborhood, the houses around theirs were not big, but they were well cared for, perfect lawn lines, very green and few flower beds, every once and a while a car would drive by.

"Lunch time," someone called from downstairs.

"Just a second mom, it's coming any minute now," replied Jessica.

A few minutes went by, then Lydia Thompson came into the bedroom, she had long beautiful straight brown hair, light blue eyes, very young looking, she had a small smile on her face.

"You know your letter would get here faster if you stop staring out the window" said Lydia, while gently stroking her daughters hair, that was long and brown, just like her moms, when you saw the two of them together it didn't take much to figure out they were mother and daughter, they looked a lot like each other. She then turned to the little boy and said "You too, time to stop searching the sky, and it's your sister letter anyway, let's all go down and have some lunch".

"Mom I want to read it with Jess", that's how he called his bigger sister, "I want to know if she is getting any new professors, or if anything will be different, besides, you know I love reading the potion list, remember… last year she had to buy spiders leg, that was so cool" said the little boy with lots of excitement in his voice.

He didn't look like his sister, he had short black hair, with dark eyes, and his skin was lighter then his sister, he looked a lot like his dad.

At the same time he finished speaking his sister was already up and starting to go down to the kitchen. She stopped at her bedroom door and said "Let's go down Willy, mom is right, it never comes when we wait by the window". He jumped up and ran down the stairs, followed by Jessica and Lydia.

Jessica was a witch, the first and only one in her family. Jessica was going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was eleven years old when she got her first letter telling what she was and explaining about the school she could attend if desired. She's been going to Hogwarts ever since, she was seventeen now, and going on her last year, she still did not know what career to proceed once she got done with school. She got O and EE on her OWLs tests, so she could pretty much choose any career she wanted, but she just couldn't decide.

Once they were done eating Mrs. Thompson started clearing the table and Jessica quickly stood up to help. Jessica gathered all the plates and set them by the sink. At the same moment a loud squeak came from the table, William was jumping up and down.

"Oooohhhhh, it's here, it's here…. I see an owl, look, here it comes!!!" He ran to the kitchen window and opened it wide.

Few seconds later the owl swooped in through the window, it was a beautiful black owl, with great yellow eyes. She got the letter and the owl set off, she opened it and laid it on the table so her mother and brother could read it too, now they were one over each other shoulders trying to see if anything changed. For her surprise nothing had changed, she would be having all the same professors, she was sure Professor Slughorn would be retiring, he'd been complaining for the past two years, saying he was tired and needed some rest. Her thoughts were broken with her little brother loud excitement.

"Look, that's why I like your letters" he started reading following with his finger "Your Potions material list is really gross. Werewolf hair, bat eye, cow blood, oohh… look, it says you need human finger nails…. Do you want to take mine?

"No, we will be buying all this. We don't want your sister to have any accidents," said Mrs. Thompson, she had her eyes still on the list "It says here you need to stop by Madam Malkin's and get some new special robes for your graduation."

"Do you think we can go to Diagon Alley this Saturday?" asked Jessica and started reading the list all over again.

"Sure, your Dad and I were already planning on it. Why don't you go call the Evans, we can meet over there," said Mrs. Thompson, who had moved away from the table and was washing dishes now.

Jessica stood up and went to the living room to call Lily Evans; they were best friends, since their first year. They sat together on Hogwarts Express, they had a lot in common, they were both muggle born, and first in their families, they had passion for magic and learning and shared the same dislike for Potter and his "gang", they were in the same year and house, Gryffindor. Before making the call she stopped and read the list once more, and she could hear Willy on the background cheering loudly "_chocolate frogs, chocolate frogs_" she could tell he was jumping up and down again, it was his favorite treat, although she had brought a considerable amount of chocolate frogs for the summer holidays, her brother had managed to finish them all.

She got hold of the phone and was ready to dial, when the phone gave a loud ring. She jumped, and thought "_how come the phone always rings when I am ready to use it?_"

"Hello," said Jessica, feeling annoyed.

"Hi, Jess?," Jessica recognized the voice at once, it was Lily Evans, she wasn't surprised, they often shared the same thought at the same time, plus Lily was the only person, besides her mother, father and brother, that called her Jess. "Did you get your letter?"

"Yes I did… Nothing changed, I was sure we were getting another Potion Professor, but by the looks of it, seems like Professor Dumbledore managed to make Slughorn stay one more year."

"I was very surprised too, I wonder how the headmaster does that," said Lily. "But I do have exciting news…."

And she paused.

"WHAT?" asked Jessica who waited a second to see if Lily was going to continue.

"I am Head Girl," said Lily. Jessica could tell she had used her shy voice.

"That's great news, now I can break the rules and get away with it," laughed Jessica.

"Yeah, like you would break the rules," said Lily ironically. "But I will tail Potter and his "gang", and I will get them in trouble all the time, they won't be able to pick on Severus Snape."

"I would not have it any other way, I will help you," Jessica continued. "Do you think we can meet at Diagon Alley this Saturday?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot, that's why I called, mom and dad are taking me this weekend, I guess we will meet then?"

"Yes," Jessica confirmed. "Same time, same place?"

"That works for me," said Lily. They met in front of The Leak Cauldron at 10:00 in the morning for the past five years to get their shopping done together. Their parents were also good friends.

Saturday morning the Thompsons were ready to go early. Jessica noticed that Willy was wearing Gryffindor robes she gave him last Christmas. She thought her brothers fascination with everything related to magic, Hogwarts and moving treats was adorable. Her parents however were wearing normal muggle clothes, but she thought they would be fine, considering that Diagon Alley was always full of muggle born children, with their parents.

They were all inside the car at 9:30. The drive to Leak Cauldron was faster than they thought, they arrived ten minutes early, but decided to wait for the Evans outside the INN. Jessica got very excited when she saw Mr. Evans car turning the corner, and for her surprise they were five minutes early.

Once again Mr. and Mrs. Evans and her friend Lily were not joined by Petunia. Petunia was Lily's older sister, and she did not like the fact that Lily was a witch, as a matter of fact, she hated everything to do with the magical world. At first it was really hard on Lily, but she stopped carrying couple of years ago. Jessica always appreciated her brother because of his love for magic, she didn't know how strong she could be if her brother started ignoring her.

"Hi Jess, excited?" asked Lily, jumping out of the car. Her hair was as long as Jessica's, but dark red, with almond shaped brilliant green eyes.

"Yes, very," said Jessica greeting Lily with a friendly hug.

They were interrupted by Willy, who was jumping up and down again. "Can I see your badge? Oh boy, oh boy."

"Oh,no…"replied Lily. "Sorry I didn't know you wanted to see it, I didn't bring it with me." Willy looked sad. "But I promise I will show it to you before we get into Hogwarts Express, okay?" She added, bringing the smile back to his face. "I love your outfit."

"Thank you, Jess gave it to me." But Lily already knew that, they were together when Jessica got it for him last year. Jessica noticed that Willy was still very disappointed but got quickly distracted when he saw his parents entering the front door, he ran saying "I remember the bricks you have to touch, I will show you…"

The Leak Cauldron looked like it always did, heavy smoke, very dark and full of wizards and witches, they made their way to the back, saying "Hi" to Tom, the innkeeper, who just waived. Lily got her wand out so she could tap the bricks, but she made sure to let Willy point the bricks before giving it a tap. I like a magical door the bricks opened and they could see Diagon Alley, packed with students.

Jessica was glad to be there, see some familiar faces and smells, she looked at Willy who had his mouth half open, his eye moving really fast, trying to take in everything around him, she was glad to see all the colorful displays, spell books and broomsticks.

It didn't take long for them to get their shopping done, they got all their books at Flourish and Blotts and got their new dress hopes for Graduation with Madam Malkin's, who was really busy with all the seventh years. They met lots of classmates on the way but all of them were really busy with their shopping so they didn't talk much.

In two hours they were done with all their shopping and very tried and hungry.

"Let's stop by Florean Fortescue place and get a bite to eat and we can have ice-cream later" said Mr. Evans, struggling to carry all of Lily's new books.

They made way through the busy streets and got to the Parlor, but they were surprised that it wasn't as full as all the other stores.

"I guess everybody is too busy to stop for ice-cream, good for us" said Mrs. Thompson, and all of the grown ups laughed, but Lily and Jessica didn't think it was funny at all.

They sat on a table and ordered. While they were waiting a young men and woman stopped in front of their table.

"Excuse me…" said the young men, "I could not help to notice, but are you guy's muggles?"

"Ugh, Yes," replied Mrs. Evans with skepticism on her voice.

"Hi then, my name is Arthur Weasley, this is my fiancée Molly," pointing to the young lady by him, Jessica noticed that she started blushing. "Do you mind if I ask some questions"

"Not at all," said Mr. Thompson gracefully. "Go ahead."

"Why do you guys need to drive those big metal things? What are they called?... Oh yeah, cars," asked Arthur, Jessica saw Lily try to hide a small laugh under her hand, that she quickly covered her mouth with.

For a few seconds no one said anything, it seemed like all of them were trying to find an answer but they could put it into words. Then Arthur spoke again.

"I'm sorry I don't mean to seem to forward, do you think I can have lunch with you? I have lots of questions," he said apologetically.

"Oh, sure, of course," quickly replied Mrs. Evans. "Lily, dear, would mind moving to the table next to us, with Jessica, so this couple can have a sit on our table."

"Sure". Both of them moved quickly, they were glad to sit alone, they had a lot to talk but didn't want to in front of their parents. They sat next to each other.

"Did you see Potter?" Lily started saying, they saw Potter and Black when they were getting their new robes "He looks more arrogant then ever".

"Now, now you can't say that, it's been a whole summer, I can change," said a boy right behind them, they didn't need to look, they recognized the voice at once, it was James Potter. "Look Sirius, this table has two chairs open, I am sure Mss. Thompson and Mss. Evans won't mind if we share"

"Oh, yes we will," started Jessica but they had already sat down. "If you haven't noticed this place is empty you can have a sit some place else."

"Why would I want to do that?" said James staring at Lily. "This is the perfect excuse to annoy my favorite book worm."

"How dare you?" Lily was very angry. "Just because I like to study and you don't, doesn't give you the right to call me a book worm."

"I am sorry, I didn't mean it like that" said James, " I decided to make peace with you this year, since we will be seeing a lot of each other during school."

"What is that suppose to mean?" asked Lily surprised.

"Oh, nothing…" answered James vaguely.

"You know I won't go out with you," said Lily, rolling her eyes. James was asking Lily out for years now, but she never gave in.

"Yes I know," James was still staring at her with a pleased smile.

"Jessica did you hear?" asked Sirius loudly, trying to diverge the conversation. "James is the new Quidditch Captain."

"Are you really?" she asked looking at him. Jessica played Chaser on Gryffindor Quidditch Team since her third year, and even though she disliked James personality she was quick to admit he was the best Seeker she'd ever seen. "I will be trying out again."

"No," he said firmly. "You don't need to, I want you in my team, for sure."

"Okay," she said feeling flattered. "Thank you."

"We really need to get going James," said Sirius while standing up.

"What? Aren't you eating?" asked Jessica.

"No, we just wanted to say hi, and we did, so we are on our way now," answered James, once again staring at Lily.

"Besides, we are not even hungry," Sirius had a weird smile on his face. "You changed a lot during the summer Jessica."

And they left, leaving Jessica and Lily wondering what was that all about. After lunch they went back to the car, said good-byes and drove away. As the Evans car turned to the opposite direction, Jessica thought how bad she wanted to go back to Hogwarts.


	2. Chapter 2

For the rest of the summer Jessica was really busy. It was always like that, she went to visit her family a lot, since she would be gone for the whole year, and she never got to see her grandparents, aunts and uncles during Christmas holiday. Her family didn't know that she was attending Hogwarts, except for her grandparents. She was afraid of how they would react; although, she thought they would be okay, she didn't want to take the risk.

Jessica always loved packing her trunk, getting ready for school. And all the help she got from Willy was really handy. She usually packed a day before she had to leave, to avoid any possible delays.

She was done packing mid-afternoon, so she had some extra time to enjoy her family. They were sitting in their family room watching old family videos; Jessica hated seeing the younger version of herself, but at the same time it made her laugh a lot, it was always an enjoyable time when they took family videos out. Today her Dad was home, so watching family videos was extra special.

All of a sudden an owl came flying through the window and dropped a letter on Jessica's lap, she debated on whether she should open it or not, because she didn't know who had sent it, it didn't have a name or address and she knew it was not from Hogwarts.

"Go ahead, open it now!" said Mr. Thompson looking curious.

"Well it could be dangerous I don't know who sent it," explained Jessica, examining the envelope closely.

"Sweetie, do you have any mortal enemies that we don't know about?" Asked Mrs. Thompson, but Jessica detected a little bit of sarcasms in her voice.

"True, it can't be dangerous, you can open it," said Willy sounding just as curious as his dad.

"Okay", she was really nervous while opening the letter. But her family was right, it wasn't dangerous at all, it was just a piece of paper. Before she started reading it she looked to see if it had a signature, but it didn't. "It doesn't have a signature, I wonder who is it from."

"Well, it might help if you actually read the letter," said Mr. Thompson laughing.

Jessica started reading it and she couldn't believe her eyes, she kept thinking "_this got to be a joke_". When she finished, her face was bright red. It was a love note, she had an admirer, she was very confused.

"So, what is it?" Asked Mrs. Thompson.

"Oh, nothing, really," but Jessica was not a good liar.

"Can we read it?" asked her dad.

Jessica simply gave him the letter, she thought it would be silly not to tell him, besides, she thought it could be just a joke, she had no idea who could have a secret crush on her. Her dad started reading aloud so her mother and brother could hear it too.

****

Dear Jessica, 

**_I've decided to write you a letter to let you know that I was_**  
**_thinking a lot about you this last summer. I've figured that _**  
**_since this will be our last year together at Hogwarts it would _**  
**_be the right time to let you know that I really like you. _**  
**_I have liked you since our first year at Hogwarts, but _**  
**_I was too shy to let you know about my feelings, and I still_**  
**_am, that's why I can't tell you my name yet, but I promise _**  
**_that I will let you know in time, and I will make your last_**  
**_year at Hogwarts very special._**  
**_I hope you understand why I can't say much about _**  
**_myself, I don't think you would accept me at the_**  
**_moment._**  
**_I also am not afraid to tell you that I wish to spend _**  
**_the rest of my life with you_**  
**_Yours soon. _**

There were a few minutes, which felt like hours, and no one said anything. Jessica's thoughts were spinning; she really wanted her parents to say something. Then she broke the silence.

"So??? You guys don't think it's a real note do you? I mean, it got to be a joke," said Jessica frustrated.

"Why would it be a joke? It seems to me that someone put a lot of thought into this letter. Any idea who might have sent it?" asked Mrs. Thompson; she had the letter on her hands now, and was rereading it.

"No, honestly, someone liked me since first year? It doesn't make sense. And what _I don't think you would accept me at the moment_ is suppose to mean?" said Jessica loudly.

"I don't know, it could mean a lot of stuff," said Mrs. Thompson vaguely.

"I guess you are right, but I still think it is a joke, probably Potter sent it, to annoy me again, he loves doing that, he is always finding a way to upset me and Lily. I bet she got one too." Jessica stood up and got the letter after her mom had set it on top of the coffee table. "I will be in my room, resting, call me when dinner is ready."

She went upstairs, and closed her bedroom door, left only with her thoughts. "_It couldn't be_", "I_ couldn't have a secret admirer_", "I_ don't want a boyfriend_". Jessica always thought of Hogwarts as the place where she went to get her education, learn all that she could and she didn't want any distractions. Jessica thought about giving Lily a call, but decided not to, because Lily was probably busy packing.

An idea came to her mind; she sat on her dresser, got her diary out, a pen, and started writing names:

Severus Snape  
Remus Lupin

A few minutes went by then she wrote the last one:

Some one I don't know

That was all the names she thought it could be a possibility, Severus was always helping Lily and her on Potions, they often met at the library to study together, she never understood why he was nice to her since she knew he wasn't a muggle-born fan. And Remus, she just wrote his name because he was always shy around her, and for some reason he left school a lot, rumors went around saying that he was really ill, and needed extra care that would explain the "_I don't think you would accept me at the moment_." And some one she didn't know, he could be someone from other house that she never met, and he was too shy to speak with her.

When her mom called her she went down for dinner, but she didn't talk much, and her parents didn't push her too hard because they could tell she'd been thinking a lot. She finished eating and went back to her bedroom, got changed and went to sleep. Tomorrow night she would be at Hogwarts, but all her excitement was gone, she didn't know what to expect anymore.

Next morning Jessica woke up, got dressed and before she went down for breakfast she decided not to let the letter ruin her day or year at Hogwarts. As she stepped into the kitchen she found her whole family already waiting, they talked while they ate, and she was very grateful that no one said a word about the letter.

She didn't have much time left after breakfast. The Thompson's were soon ready to leave to King's Cross Station. The drive to the station was very quiet, not even Willy seemed like himself, but Jessica was used to it. Willy always got really down every time Jessica was about to leave, he knew that he had to face a whole year without his sister around and that was really hard for him.

Jessica got to the Hogwarts Express earlier then she needed, the goodbyes to her family were really fast this year, she just wanted to go to Hogwarts, all that silence became really odd.

"Bye, take care," said Mrs. Thompson, giving Jessica a hug that took longer that she wanted, "try to have a bit of fun, this will be your last year". But Jessica thought that was even more annoying then not saying anything.

To avoid more awkward moments Jessica gave her dad a quick hug and said "Bye, see you on Holidays," then gave Willy a kiss on the forehead and quickly ran through the wall between platform 9 and 10.

Hogwarts Express was already half full when she got there; she made her way to the compartment Lily and she always sat on. Jessica didn't want to be alone, she didn't want to think, so she opened her trunk and got a book out, she figured if she got busy she wouldn't have to think about that stupid letter. And it worked very well; she was actually enjoying herself.

"For goodness sake, don't tell me you are already studying, we're not even at Hogwarts yet." It was James Potter trying to annoy her again; Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were standing right next to him.

"Well, I was just getting a bit a reading done, never to early to start." But she knew how she sounded and felt really stupid, she tried to fix it, "I have a lot in my mind, so I figured if I keep busy I won't have to think about things I don't want to."

"I bet you do have a lot in your mind," said Potter and gave a small laugh; no one else found it funny.

"So, where is Remus?" asked Jessica, when she realized what she had asked, it was too late, all three had a big question mark stamped on their forehead.

"Remus is not feeling well today, he will be joining us at Hogwarts tomorrow," replied Sirius who still had a curious look on his face.

Jessica decided she needed to change subjects, although she wanted to know more about Remus and why he wasn't there.

"Potter, why did you come here? Is annoying me the only thing you have to do? " She asked putting the book back on her trunk.

"No, actually, I came to see if Lily was already here, but since she is not I will go for a walk, maybe Severus arrived," said James and all three broke into a hysterical laugh. "We can go say welcome back! I see you later"

For Jessica's delight Lillian got there soon after they left, so she didn't have time to think about the letter again.

"Hi Jess, I met your parents outside, showed my badge to Willy, poor boy, he looks miserable," Lily started saying, hardly taking a breath while she spoke. "I came as fast as I could… I've been thinking who could be Head boy, and the only person that came to my mind is Remus Lupin, I mean it got to be him. I know he is friends with Potter but he is the most responsible one, isn't he? In about 20 minutes we will have a meeting to meet each other and the new prefects. I bet it will be Remus"

"I don't think so Lily," said Jessica calmly. "You see, Remus is not here today he is not well, he will be coming to Hogwarts just tomorrow."

"Oh, that creates a problem, it's probably not him then, but who could it be?" Lily paused, thinking. "Hey, how did you know he is not coming?"

Jessica told Lily about Potter's visit, and what he said. She wanted to tell Lily about the letter but figured Lily had a lot in her mind already, so decided to tell her later.

"So Potter came here looking for me? What for? Did he say something else?"

"No, he didn't, I thought it was really odd." The train was leaving now, and Jessica gave a small look outside then continued "Lily, I don't know if I will play Quidditch this year. I don't know if I will survive with James as a captain."

"Of course you will, I won't let you quit," said Lily. "You are an excellent chaser and you can let him get to you."

"Thanks Lily, you are a great friend," said Jessica, feeling grateful for the support.

"No problem, I have to go now but I don't think I will take long," Lily left.

As she opened the compartment door, the hallway was blasting with loud laughter before the door could close a hand got hold of it and opened it again. It was Severus, with his black eyes wide open, terrified, she could tell at once that Potter and Black were picking on him again.

Jessica and Severus met on the train on their first journey to Hogwarts. Lily and Severus lived in the same neighborhood and met before coming to Hogwarts, they were sharing a compartment when Jessica asked if she could join them. Once the were sorted Lily and Severus got put in different houses, and Jessica and Lily stayed together, their friendship grew strong from there. Even though Severus was in the least liked house, Slytherin, they still managed to be friends, but in several occasions Jessica and Lily acknowledged their friendship could be a lot stronger if their were all in the same house.

"Hello there Jessica, did you have a good summer?" asked Severus gasping for air.

"Yes I did Severus, how about you?" she asked, wondering why his hair looked extra greasy today.

"No, I hate summer holidays, I rather be at Hogwarts," he said looking out the window.

"I guess you already met Potter and Black today?"

"Yes I did, can stand them anymore" he said full of hate. "I swear one day I will use an Unforgivable Curse on them, that will teach them a lesson"

Jessica let a small laugh out. "Now Severus, don't even go there, you are not evil enough to just perform an Unforgivable Curse". But he didn't say anything back, and that was very uncomfortable.

Severus looked out the window for a few moments. Jessica decided to make a question that she knew she would regret later, but she didn't care, she got to know. "Severus why are you so nice to me? I mean, everybody knows you are not a muggle-born fan."

But again it took Severus a minute before replying.

"Well, Jessica, I won't lie, I am not a muggle born fan, as a matter of fact I am not a muggle lover in general," he said. "But I know that all cases have exceptions, like in this case, you. I admire your passion for magic, you are really good with potions we share the same gift and I won't let out the fact that you helped me in several occasions to get rid of Potter and his gang, as you call them. Although I am not proud to say a girl helps me with that, I can't deny that I appreciate it."

Jessica was blown away, apparently she did mean something to him, and she had no idea, what she didn't know was if he was the one who send her the letter yesterday. It was one of the sweetest things a guy ever told her.

Lily came unto the compartment shortly after Severus finished speaking.

"Hi Severus, are you joining us?" She asked excitedly.

"No I was leaving, I am sharing a compartment with some boys of my house. See you Jessica," And he left.

"Jessica you won't believe this, I won't do it, I refuse," said Lily, just like a toddler throwing a fit.

"What? Did you go to your meeting?" asked Jessica.

"Of course I did, you won't believe who is the new head boy," she replied with her eyes teary.

"Who?" asked Jessica again curious.

"James Potter," she thundered, Jessica felt Lily explode with anger.

"What? It's a joke, right?" laughed Jessica.

"No, I thought it was a joke too, when I came in Potter was standing there, I told him to go away, but before I finished I saw his badge, I can't believe Dumbledore would do that, I will go and talk with him, as soon as possible. It got to be a misunderstanding."

They talked for hours, and when Jessica thought Lily was coming down she would get angry all over again. James used stop by several times during the trip but he didn't come at all after the meeting this time, Jessica figured he knew better. Lily still looked really upset, so Jessica changed subjects, and told Lily about the letter, her suspicious and her conversation with Snape.

"Oh, Jess, I am so sorry," said Lily, a lot calmer. "I was so worried about my own problems that I didn't even think you could be going through a personal crises yourself. I have no idea who else could be, your choices seems really reasonable."

"It doesn't matter now, I decided that I won't let this get to me, I refuse." said Jessica with a smile. "We will stick together this year, and we will get through it, both of us will make it."

"You're right, I will help you and you will help me, like always," said Lily. "I see Hogwarts ahead, we better change."

They changed unto school robes and left the train, as they got to the horseless carriages, they were joined by Severus again.

"Do you mind? All Slytherin seventh year carriages are full," he asked.

"Not a problem, hop aboard," said Lily.

As the carriage started moving they heard a loud whistle.

"Oye, hold there," someone called.

And then loud foot steps approached quickly. It was Potter and his gang again.

"Sorry all others are full already," said Sirius as he was hoping aboard. Before realizing Snape was inside. "Maybe this is not a good idea, James," once he saw Severus there.

"It's okay we can all behave, we are people not animals," said James, and the carriage set off again.

Jessica and Lily were very surprised that there drive went very smoothly, Severus was very quiet, Sirius looked out of the window most of the time and James stared at Lily the whole way saying something occasionally. It was very uncomfortable but Jessica didn't dare to say anything.

The feast was wonderful as always, it was good to be back. They set off to their dormitories, Jessica was really tired and extremely sleepy. When they got there they found a small box of chocolate, with a little note on top of her bed.

_**You looked very pretty today on the train.**_

_**See you tomorrow in class.**_  
_**Have a good night, and sweet dreams**_

Lily thought all this was very exciting, and Jessica was very surprised and she really liked the chocolate, and she thought it was very sweet, to the point where she started to feel different about this admirer, he seemed very thoughtful and she liked that.

Jessica actually slept well that night, but when she woke up she spent a lot of time thinking while she got ready. Breakfast was quiet too, all her roommates were talking and telling how their summer was but Jessica just listened. They got their classes schedule right after breakfast and Jessica waited until the Gryffindor table was almost empty, then started telling Lily what she was thinking.

"It can't be who we were thinking. See, Remus wasn't on the train so is not him. It had to be a Gryffindor, because they put the package on my bed, so is not Severus. I don't know what to think."

Lily gave it some thought, trying to figure it out. "It can still be Severus, even if it's someone from our house they wouldn't be able get into our dormitory, boys can't come inside our dormitories remember?" She paused. "I bet he asked a house-elf to bring it up with our luggage."

"So you agree is not Remus then?"

"No, it could be him too," said Lily sounding clever. "You told me that when you asked for Remus his friends looked puzzled. So his friends could have sent you the chocolates because they thought you knew it was Remus, considering that your admirer doesn't want you to know who he is, makes a perfect plan to make you think is not Remus, and you did, so it worked."

"Wow, this is more complicated then I thought," said Jssica. "Well, I don't care, and we better be on our way or we will be late. We have Potions first."

But she did care, and she knew that, because she kept thinking about it. Now she was considering that a boyfriend was not a bad idea, Lily and she were the only girls in seventh year from Gryffindor that never had a boyfriend, Jessica dated her neighbor for couple of months, but that was it. Although half of the Gryffindor girls dated Sirius, she still could not help but to think what was wrong with her.

When they got to the dungeons, it seemed that everyone was already there. On her way in Jessica noticed that Remus, indeed, had joined his friends today. As soon as they got a sit Slughorn started speaking.

"So good to see all of you back, hope you had a good summer. I decided to group you in a different way this year, considering that you will be getting ready for your NEWTs, I decided to give help to those that needs extra attention, so I will choose the study partners this term. So shall we start? Let's see" He looked around then said "Aha, shall we put head boy and my favorite head girl together?" Lily was shaking her head terrified. "Oh yes, that will be best, Potter could use your help Mss. Evans."

James had a triumphant smile on his face, Lily turned to Jessica and said, "I bet he loves this, he gets to annoy me all year". But they could hear Professor Slughorn continuing.

"And I've decided that Mr. Lupin and Mss. Thompson must be together. Lupin you can learn a lot from Mss. Thompson, perhaps by the end of the term I will have her help you with a special potion I heard about" he said looking at Remus. "You can really use it."

Jessica looked at Remus and he was bright red, he was really shy. Then she looked at Severus and he had angry eyes, she could tell he was really mad. Jessica stopped listening to what Professor Slughorn was saying. Her head was spinning like crazy; none of the two reactions helped her to have any additional clue whom her admirer was. But she was kind of glad she was going to spend more time with Remus, she really didn't know him that well and that was the perfect opportunity.

"Okay, I want to start my lesson now, but I want you to sit with your partner. So time to change table people," said Slughorn excitedly.

Sirius was sitting next to James, as he stood up, James signaled with his hand calling Lily there.

"Of course he wants me to go there, he is not a gentleman at all" and she left.

Remus came and sat by her, but didn't say a word. Severus past by her table looking at her, more like a uncomfortable stare, and took a sit by Peter, Sirius took a sit right in front of her table, with a blond girl he dated last year.

The lesson went really slow, Remus didn't talk much, just the necessary. Sirius would look back all the time exchanging looks with Remus and Jessica was getting really annoyed. Remus was not good at Potions, he kept messing up and Jessica thought he was nervous, because he kept spilling stuff all over. And every time Sirius looked back it seemed like Remus would get even worse.

Slughorn gave them homework, and made it clear that it was to be done with their partners. Jessica was so frustrated with her experience that she didn't even want to set a time to do her homework with Remus, she went to look for Lily, but Lily was still sitting down talking with James, which was really odd. Jessica walked over to Lily and James table.

"On Friday they will be holding try outs for the Quidditch Team," said Lily as soon as she saw Jessica.

"Yeah, and even though you will be in the team, I need you to try so people won't complain" said James.

"Okay I will do that". And she noticed that Remus joined them.

"We will do our homework earlier that evening, we should do it together, four is better then two" said James.

"Make that six, I don't want to be alone with Ashlyn, she is crazy," said Sirius as he joined them also.

"Make that eight," added Peter, "Snape terrifies me, I don't want to be alone with him."

"No way," said Sirius. "That's your own problem; I am not doing my homework with Snivellus."

It was a long week, they were loaded with homework, and were at the library everyday until late. But Jessica and Lily were enjoying themselves.

Friday they were already at the Library when they were joined by Remus, Sirius, James and Ashlyn. It was kind of fun doing homework all together, and Remus was much better today, seemed more comfortable. When they finished their homework they went down to the Quidditch Field. On their way they met Severus, Sirius took his wand out, but James quickly got hold of his arm and indicated with his eye that Lily and Jessica were there. Sirius quickly put his wand way.

"Hi Sev, enjoying your first week of school?" asked Lily. Just Lily and Jessica stopped and the rest kept going down to the Quidditch Field.

"I thought I would be enjoying more, but it started all wrong when Professor Slughorn gave me that worm, Peter as a partner"

"I am sorry about that, I didn't like my partner either, Remus is to quiet and really bad in Potions, I liked it better when were the three of us" said Jessica. "I am going to try out for the team, do you want to come watch it?"

"Sure, I am not doing anything," he said joining them.

They went down all together to the field. And there were a lot of people there, mostly girls trying to make the team, just because James was so popular, making Lily roll her eye at the girl invasion. James made sure to let everybody have a turn trying out, before saying who made it and who didn't. It was almost dark outside when James gave the names of who was in the team. Even though Jessica knew she was in, she was really excited when James said her name. As she went back to the castle, she noticed Severus was gone already.

Couple of days later, after lunch, Jessica went to get a book that she forgot on her bed and found another note.

_**Congratulations for making the team.**_

_**You were great out there.**_  
_**Sorry I didn't sent you any letters, since**_  
_**we got here at Hogwarts. I've been really**_  
_**busy. Hope I can talk with you soon.**_

Jessica was in a hurry so she put the letter inside diary and then joined Lily for her next lesson.


	3. Chapter 3

A few weeks went by, Jessica was getting even busier with all the homework her teachers were giving, plus she was studying extra hard for her NEWTs every spare time she had. She became so preoccupied that her admirer was not a priority on her day, she was getting letters all the time, and it made her wonder who was sending them, but she stopped worrying about it that much. She also was busy with Quidditch practices. James was really working hard on the team, they had a really good chance of winning the Quidditch Cup.

The first Hogsmeade visit was late in October, the night before Jessica was really excited, she could use a nice break from Hogwarts. When she woke up the next morning she did not feel good at all, her head seemed like it was going to explode, every inch of her body was sore. She couldn't believe it , seemed like she had a flu. After breakfast she went down to the Hospital Wing, thinking that Madam Pomfrey could do a quick fix. But she was wrong, very wrong, Pomfrey kept her there, said that Jessica needed rest.

Before Lily left she made sure to bring all Jessica's books so she had something to do. It was a very long day, and once again Jessica read, and read, and then got some more reading done. She could not help but to think that was really depressing.

Later that day Lily, James, Sirius, Remus came to see her, as soon as they got back from the village.

"Are you feeling better?" asked Lily. "Here I got some sweets for you from Honeydukes". Lily gave her a bag full of all kinds of different candy and chocolate.

"Thank you, that really makes me feel little better," she said getting a bite a chocolate bar.

"Here I thought you could use some of this," said Sirius, handing her a jug of butterbeer.

"Oh, that will go very well, it will help a lot with my sore throat, " Jessica thanked him and thought that was very sweet.

They stayed there making Jessica laugh the whole time, she was extremely grateful. She saw Severus open the door and quickly close it again, Jessica figured that Severus saw Sirius and left.

Later that night Pomfrey let Jessica go, with the condition she went straight to bed. When they got back to the common room they said good night and went to their dormitories. Lily and Jessica had a lot to talk about.

"I was really surprised to see you coming in with James and his friends. What happened in Hogsmeade?" asked Jessica as they were getting ready to go to bed.

"Well, you see, I was alone, because I felt awkward talking with the girls our age, because I never do, so I thought they would not be very nice to me. James saw me and invited to spend the day with them. It was really cool, they are fun, and they know how to have a good time. I am starting to think we were very wrong about them," she said with caution.

"No, we were right about them," said Jessica at once. "But I noticed they changed a lot, they are different. I mean, did you notice that they haven't terrorized Severus since they got here at Hogwarts?"

"Yes I did, and they are not trying to annoy us anymore. And James," Lily stopped talking, although searching for words, "well, he is not as bad as I thought; he is very sweet and thoughtful."

No one spoke, Jessica didn't know what to say, Lily words were really strange, they scared her, could it be that her best friend was developing a crush on James Potter?

"Well, anyway, I and tired, Do you mind if I go to sleep?" asked Lily while hopping into bed.

"No, I am tired as well, good night, sweet dreams," said Jessica.

But Lily didn't reply, and Jessica lied to her friend for the first time, she wasn't tired, she wasn't sleepy at all. Jessica laid in bed for the longest time, wondering where her life was going. Now more then ever she wanted to know who her admirer was, it was obvious that James had a crush on Lily, and now Lily might have a crush too. How long it would be before they start dating now? She couldn't bare the thought that she was going to be the only one who never dated anybody at Hogwarts, that was too cruel. She couldn't stay in bed anymore. Jessica left her bed and went down to the Common Room, she liked watching the fire burn, and that always made her sleepy.

The Common Room was totally empty, she got a blanket from the top of the couch by the fireplace and laid down, that was much better, she was feeling calmer already. It was so peaceful now, then she heard footsteps, coming down the stairs, she decided to stay quiet, hoping whoever was coming would not notice she was there, but the foot steps got closer and closer and then stopped. She looked up behind the couch and looking down on her was Sirius Black.

"Couldn't sleep either?" he asked.

"No, and the fireplace always makes me sleepy," said Jessica, while sitting up, so Sirius would have a place to sit.

"Good we can keep company to each other until we get sleepy," and Sirius sat by her.

Jessica let go of half of the blanket, so Sirius could have some. "Thanks," he said, but Jessica didn't look at him; she was watching the fire burn.

Neither of them spoke after that, Jessica started getting sleepy and sleepy, until she fell asleep.

***

"Jessica… Jessica…" she heard someone calling her from the distance. She opened her eyes, it was day light, she saw the fireplace and realized she didn't go back to her bed last night. And that was not the only weird thing, she noticed that she was lying on Sirius shoulder, and his arm was around her; she jumped up.

"What happened?" she asked in shock.

"Well, isn't it obvious? We fell asleep," said Sirius, making Jessica furious, because he didn't think it was odd at all.

"Did someone see us?" she asked.

"I don't think so, I think everyone still in bed," he said looking around.

"Good so I can hop back in bed and no one will notice I was gone" Jessica started waking to her dormitory. "Oh, and I expect that you won't tell anyone about this."

"Of course", but Sirius laid back on the couch.

Jessica hopped into bed and didn't go back to sleep, she was waiting till Lily was awake to tell her what happened, but Lily slept until really late. Her roommates woke up and left for breakfast while she waited. Lily woke up after what seemed like an eternity and sat on her bed.

"Good morning Lily," Jessica greeted her with enthusiasm.

"Good morning."

"Lily, I need to…" But Jessica could not finish because Lily started talking again.

"What time is it?" she asked looking sleepy.

"10:30"

"10:30? OH NO, I promised I would meet James at 10:00." She got off bed and started changing.

"What for?" asked Jessica annoyed.

"He needs help with Potions," she said putting the first sweater she could put her hands on.

"On Sunday?" asked Jessica disbelieving.

"Yes, I really got to go now." And she left.

Jessica stood there, half shocked half angry, but decided she was not going to let that get to her. She skipped breakfast, got her favorite Novel, and went outside to read it under a tree. It was kind of chilly but it was a beautiful day, with sunny skies. She noticed a first year girl by the lake, practicing some charms, and spells. She opened her book and started reading it.

Soon after that, she heard laughter, she looked up and saw the girl was not alone, Sirius had joined her and was helping her, they were taking turns and Sirius would give her tips on how to move the wand and say the incantation properly. That was really sweet, and she watched him for longer then she needed or wanted.

Lily was nowhere to be seen and it was a long day again, after lunch she spend some time with Severus, he seemed miserable, but she couldn't tell why, he left to go do his homework with Peter and he was not happy to do it so. So Jessica decided to go look for Remus so they could work on homework as well.

She went back to the common room, and found Sirius there.

"Have you seen Remus?" she asked him.

"He is not here, he was sick so headmaster decided to send him home for couple days," he told her.

"Thanks", she didn't want to talk with Sirius she was feeling embarrassed by last night.

"Jessica, I want you to know that I would not tell anyone about last night, even if you hadn't said anything," he added

"Thanks again."

Jessica spent the rest of the afternoon on her bed, she never heard of someone going home because they were sick, everything was very confusing. She was thinking about Sirius more then she wanted, could it be that she was getting a crush on Sirius? Why was he always on her mind? How about her admirer? She couldn't bare to break someone's heart. It was a very hard day for her and the fact Lily wasn't there to help was even worse.

***

Although Jessica wanted her last year at Hogwarts to be the best, things were not going the way she imaged. Lily was spending a lot of time with James, she promised they were not dating just good friends, but that annoyed her even more. Jessica was usually alone at the Library or in her dormitory, the only time she got to spend with Lily was during meals, but didn't help either, because they were always joined by Potter and his gang.

Her admirer stopped sending her letters too, now just once in a while she would get one, and that made her sad as well. Did she do something to upset him? Why was he not writing her? Is it because of Sirius? Did he know something? Questions often filled her mind, making it all very confusing.

She was avoiding Sirius now. She thought a lot about him, and that scared her a lot, so she figured that avoiding him was the best way out, although he always found a reason to talk to her the plan seemed to the working just fine. Jessica was sure Sirius noticed she didn't feel comfortable around him, but he didn't seem to mind, she could swear he was actually enjoying himself.

It was early December now. Outside of the castle was white, full of snow everywhere; it was Jessica's favorite time of the year. Everybody seemed happier.

Jessica was looking forward for Potions when she got up in the morning, she wanted to spend some time with Remus, she still had her suspicions on him and Severus. When she got down for breakfast she noticed he was not with his friends.

"Where is Remus?" asked Jessica.

"He is not here, Dumbledore sent him home, not feeling well," replied Peter.

"Again? What does he have?" she asked again.

"Don't know. None of us know actually," said James and quickly changed subjects.

When they got down to the dungeons Jessica took her place and was expecting to do the lesson alone, and it was not a big deal because she was really good and didn't need Remus help anyway. But something funny happened, Ashlyn was not in the class today, and no one seemed to know where she was. So for Jessica dislike, or to her liking we should say, Professor Slughorn placed Sirius and Jessica together so neither would be alone.

"Good, now you can't run away," said Sirius, full of delight.

Normally Jessica would find that annoying, but she didn't, she was actually enjoying the whole situation. Sirius was surprisingly good, he did most of the work and they talked the whole time, at least half of time was not even related to the lesson. While Sirius was preparing the ingredients Jessica would give helpful tips that would give them a nicer potion in the end.

Jessica started noticing that Sirius was extremely charming, his smile was just overwhelming her, his black hair fell into his face in such a graceful way, she kept asking herself why she never noticed how good looking he was. His voice put Jessica into some kind of a trance, she did not understand what was happing to her, because it was the first time in her life someone unwillingly made her feel like that.

They were probably the first ones to finish the potion. So they had extra time just to talk, she was learning a lot about Sirius, she actually felt bad for him when he told her his family got upset when he made into Gryffindor, considering that he is the only one that did not get put in Slytherin house. Professor Slughorn was checking the potions now, giving his usual remarks; he stopped in front of Jessica and Sirius and gave them a long stare.

"It looks like we have a winner" he looked at Snape and continued, "This time Ms Thompson and Mr. Black bit you Snape. It looks like I made a mistake; this is a good pair I shall keep you together. Remus and Ashlyn will be partners now."

But that did not sound right, Jessica was worried now, and what if her admirer was indeed Remus. She could not do that to him, it would not be fair.

"Actually I would rather pair with Remus," she said without thinking, "if you don't mind sir. You see Remus really needs my help and I can help, he already made such a good progress," regretting her words instantly.

"Oh yes he did, if you think it will be better that way I will keep as is," he said moving to the next table. "And I will still have you help him with a special potion that he needs, but only after the Holidays."

Jessica couldn't concentrate the rest of the day, for the first time the whole year she actually enjoyed potions for a change, and she could've kept it like that but she didn't. She knew it was the right thing to do and what she did was really noble but she felt miserable. After lunch she had the afternoon open so she went to sit by the lake.

"There you are, I've being looking for you for about one hour. We haven't had much time together. I miss our girl talk Jess," Lily sat by her.

"I miss it too Lily, you've been way too busy," said Jessica, feeling relieved her friend finally came to her.

"Oh I am sorry," she said putting her arms around Jessica. "I will make it up to you, how about we get our Christmas shopping done at Hogsmeade, just the two of us, that will be lots of fun."

"I like that, I was hoping we would have some girl time before Christmas," Jessica laughed. "I was wondering if you will come to stay with me after Christmas before we come back to Hogwarts."

"I was already planning on it Jess," Lily told her. "You know I love going to your house during the Holiday. I just need to ask one question." She paused. "James really wants to come and see me during the holidays and I was wondering with he could come to your house one day, I think Petunia would freak out if he visited my house."

"Of course he can, you know I don't mind," she genially agreed. "And I am sure James has lots of ways to amuse Willy, he will love it. So what's going on between the two of you?" But they were interrupt by no other then James himself.

"Hey, good I found you," he said panting. "Lily are you forgetting about our meeting with the headmaster? It starts in five minutes." Sirius was with him.

She jumped to her feet "Jess I got to go, I did forget. I am sorry," she apologized. "And I promise I will make it up to you."

"No problem, run now, you don't want you to be late." Lily started, indeed, running followed by James.

"What do you think is going on between the two of them?" asked Sirius.

"I just asked Lily the same question," she answered watching her friend disappear inside the castle entrance

"What did she say?" Sirius curiously asked.

"Nothing, you guys got here before she could answer," she laughed.

Sirius was looking at the lake and he sat down by Jessica and spoke again. "So what do you think?"

"Well, she told me before that they were just good friends, but I find that a little hard to believe," she admitted

"Why?" he asked again.

"To me it always seemed obvious that James has a major crush on Lily, I mean he never tried to hide it," she said, looking straight at the lake avoiding her heart racing because of Sirius presence.

"You are right, he does have a crush on Lily, ever since I can remember," he smiled "How about her, does she have crush on James?"

"If you are trying to collect information to tell your friend, tell him that I have no idea, since he's spending more time with her than I am". Sirius gave a small laugh. Jessica was still looking at the lake, but she could tell that Sirius was looking at her.

A few seconds passed and he kept looking at her, then she decided to turn. She looked right at him, their eye met, they were so close. Not a word was spoken, but their silence spoke at least a thousand words at that moment. She felt it, she really liked him, does that mean he likes her too? It felt like an eternity, no one moved no one spoke. Then Jessica decided to break the silence. She stood up.

"I can't do this," she said starting to walk away.

"Why?" Sirius quickly stood up also trying to catch Jessica's eye again, but she wouldn't let him.

"Sirius how can I trust you?" she finally turned to speak with him. "You've been dating since our first year, you change girlfriends like you change your robes."

"Well I haven't dated anyone since school started this year," he sounded desperate. "And you can't say that about me, you don't even know me, you got to trust me."

"Exactly, I don't know you, therefore I can't trust you. I am very sorry." Jessica turned around and went straight to her bed. She skipped dinner, she heard Lily come in but she pretended to be asleep, she did not want to talk with anyone, not even Lily.

***

Saturday morning Jessica and Lily went down for breakfast, they were both excited, they haven't spend time together in ages. On their way to Hogsmeade they got a chance to talk considering that they were alone.

"So you never answered my question the other night. What's going on between you and Potter?" asked Jessica.

"I don't really know," she said thoughtfully. "He likes me you know, tells me all the time. But I don't know if I want a boyfriend. A friend is good enough."

There was a moment of silence.

"Do you like him?" asked Jessica finally.

Lily took her time before answering.

"Promise you won't get mad at me?" she said concerned.

"No, why would I?" replied Jessica smiling.

"Well, because before the year started we hated everything about Potter and his gang," Lily recalled. "So I don't know if you will like what I have to say."

"Things changed Lily, they changed, all of them," Jessica said thinking of Sirius. "And nothing you can tell me will make me mad at you, you know that."

"Oh Jess, I do like him a lot," said Lily smiling widely. "I think about him all the time, all day."

"So why don't you go out with him?" Jessica asked. "A boyfriend might not be a bad idea."

"I didn't want to do that without talking with you first," she said happily. "I've been holding myself not to do anything stupid, thought you got to be the first one to know about a decision like that."

"Thanks, it means a lot to me," said Jessica.

"Now you need a boyfriend, so we can go on double dates." But Jessica did not reply she was looking ahead, she could see Hogsmeade. "What happened with your admirer, any new development?"

"No," said Jessica with a frown. "Except that he stopped writing that often, now I get one per month, if I am lucky."

Jessica wanted to tell Lily about Sirius but they arrived so she decided to wait.

They had a lot of shopping to get done. They stopped at the joke shop first and got lot of things, Mr. Thompson and Willy always loved everything from there. Then they dropped by Honeyducks to buy sweets, and they did get loads of it, gifts and their personal stack for the holidays. They were having lots of fun; Jessica missed spending time with Lily.

"Let's stop for lunch I am starving," said Lily.

"Sure, me too". That was the perfect opportunity to tell Lily about Sirius. And she did, Lily didn't say anything till the end. "So what do you think Lily?"

"Jess, I had no idea, you and Sirius?" she said puzzled. "I don't know… Do think he is your admirer?"

"No, that's the problem," said Jessica. "Sirius is a player isn't he? So I can't trust him can I? Oh Lily I can't stop thinking about him."

"It is a hard situation," said Lily with sympathy. "Sirius is known to be a bit of a heart breaker, but in the other hand, he didn't date anyone this year."

"True," Jessica agreed. "But it could be just because all the girls realized he is a player, and no one will go out with him."

Lily gave a small giggle and they changed subjects. After lunch they got their last shopping done. Jessica got Willy a tiny broomstick that really flew, she thought Willy would go crazy, plus she got him a fake wand, he always asked her for one but she never found a wand that looked real enough so she never bought it.

"Lily wait, wait." It was James running towards them.

"What?" Lily asked.

"I was wondering if you can help me pick a gift for my mom, I have a really bad taste," he said.

"Oh James, I promised Jess I was spending the day with her. I can't," she explained.

"No, Lily, it's okay," Jessica quickly said. "We have less then two hours left so I won't mind. I will find Severus, I haven't talked with him in a while."

"Are you sure, Jess?" Lily asked.

"Oh yes, go ahead," Jessica replied

"Thank you Jessica," James said. "I will be forever thankful."

"Yeah, yeah. Go now before I change my mind." And they went away, leaving Jessica once more, alone.

It wasn't hard to find Severus, Jessica went to get some butterbeer and Severus was sitting alone.

"Hello there," Jessica greeted him friendly. "I was hoping to find you Severus, getting some Christmas shopping done?"

"Not really, I don't care about Christmas," he said. "I never get any gifts so I don't buy them either."

Jessica didn't know what to say, he looked extra depressed today, so she let go of the subject.

"Can I sit with you?" she asked since he did not invite her. "I can go for a drink by now."

"Sure," he said pulling a chair next to him. "My table is empty anyway."

They had an enjoyable time together, after a few minutes talking he loosen up and started having fun, although Severus was not as exciting as Sirius, Jessica still liked to talk with him, he was very smart and they had long conversation about cool things.

"Oh, I thought I smelled something funny," Severus said twisting his nose. "Of course, look who just came in."

Jessica looked at the door, and saw Sirius, her stomach gave a back flip. He came in with Ashlyn and sat not far from where she was sitting. _"They are just friends, just like Severus and I, nothing to it" _she kept telling herself over and over again. But she was wrong, very wrong, they were kissing now, she felt like running.

"Are you okay Jessica?" Severus said massaging he hands. "You are pale as a ghost."

"No" said Jessica, noticing she was shaking. "Severus, do you mind taking a walk with me? I am done with my drink."

"Yeah sure," he said, peering at her. "I will go walk with you."

They stood up, and even without Jessica asking, Severus put his arms around Jessica's shoulders and made Jessica feel very safe, not counting that it would make Sirius very jealous.

"You should've seen his face when we left", said Severus while letting go of her shoulders.

"Who?" Jessica pretended she did not understand.

"Sirius Black, of course," he said laughing. "That's why you wanted to leave, right?"

"Yes," she muttered. "But how…" she didn't have time to finish her sentence.

"I know you better then you think Jessica," he said proudly. "And if you really do have a crush on him, I am letting you know that I don't approve it, you need someone smart, someone that shares the same passions you do, not that phony Black."

_I need someone like you, is that what're you saying? _Jessica thought but of course didn't say anything. Instead she said "Don't worry about me, I had a moment of weakness, in my right mind I would never go out with Sirius Black" she lied.

"Lets go to the bookstore," he said as a chilly breeze went by. "At least is warm inside," he said.

"Good idea," Jessica followed.

The bookstore was empty. They went straight to the Potion section. Snape picked up a book and let a "wow" out. "This is really cool" he said. He looked at the price and put it back looking disappointed.

"Let me see. Oh that is cool," she agreed. "I bet it makes a cool gift for Lily, and why not get one for myself." She got two copies, one for Lily and one for Severus, she felt bad when he said he doesn't get gifts. They paid for it and left again. It was time to go back to Hogwarts.

Just outside the store they saw Sirius and Ashlyn holding hands, as soon as Sirius saw Jessica he kissed Ashlyn at once. Jessica felt like running again, and she actually turned around to do so, but instead Severus held her arm, turned her around and kissed her. They were kissing in public, in front of at least twenty Hogwarts students. She knew exactly what Severus was doing so she didn't let go.

When Severus and Jessica finally broke off, she hugged him and whispered "thanks". They held hand all the way to the carriages, since it was cold Dumbledore send them down for the students to ride back. Severus went to his carriage and Jessica met Lily, James and Peter and they drove back together.

It was not until later that Jessica stopped to think what really happened. She was pretty sure Severus did it so Sirius would get jealous, and Jessica did not mind it at all. But the thought that a bunch of Hogwarts students had seen them kissing really bugged her. Severus is not the ideal first date at Hogwarts, she felt a bit embarrassed. Jessica did not go down for dinner and she was surprised when Lily came running through the dormitory door way to early.

"Is it true Jess?" Lily asked urgently.

"It depends who told you, and how they told you," said Jessica quietly.

"In that case, make it who didn't tell me," Lily was passing. "Everybody is talking about it, so is it really true? You and Severus kissed?"

"Yes we did kiss," she said gloomily.

"Jess, how did it happen?"

"Did you see Sirius and Ashlyn?" asked Jessica.

"Oh yes, and I thought you would be very upset, I mean, you didn't say a word the whole drive back to Hogwarts, but then I heard about you and Severus and got really confused."

"I can explain." Jessica told the whole story and how Severus did not want to pass the perfect opportunity to make Sirius jealous.

"Jealous? It's that all?" Lily was in disbelief.

"Yes, I think. I am having second thoughts now," said Jessica thoughtfully. "What if Severus is indeed my admirer? Then, the kiss meant more to him then just a simple plan to make Sirius jealous. I don't know what to do."

"You got yourself in a bit of trouble, I don't know what to say or how to help," said Lily.

It was a long night, sleepless, Jessica wanted to go down to the fireplace but did not want to take the chance of meeting Sirius there again. She tried to concentrate, in a week from now, when she would be home for holidays. Finally in the morning when Lily woke up she sat on Jessica bed and stroked her hair until she fell asleep. When she finally woke up she found breakfast and lunch sitting on her bed side. She realized that she was asleep for a long time.

The thought of facing everybody in school was horrible but she refused to stay in all day. She got dressed, ate a bite of her breakfast and lunch, got her broomstick and went down to the field. For her delight, they were starting a game and she got to join, it was always fun to play with people from all houses together. James was in her team, and he was the only Gryffindor besides her. She saw Lily watching but did not see Sirius or Severus.

After the game was over she went to talk with Lily and James followed her.

"Isn't this the perfect time for a meeting," said James dreamily.

"What do you mean James?" asked Jessica.

"Lily has something really special to tell you," said James.

"Okay, what is it Lily?"

"James and I had a talk this morning, and now we are officially dating. He asked me to be his girlfriend." James held Lily, spun her around and gave her a very sweet kiss on the forehead. Jessica thought it was adorable, but at the same time, a little depressing for her, now she was going to be alone most of the time.

"That's great, congratulations," said Jessica awkwardly. "I have to go, I need to go find Severus."

"Oh, about Severus," said Lily with a soft voice. "He had an accident, Sirius got a little out of control. Oh Jess, I wanted to tell you sooner but you were asleep when it happened."

"What did he do to him? What did Sirius do?" she said sharply. "Where is he? I swear I will make him pay." Jessica was extremely upset

"The Headmaster send him home," said James. "Since this is the last week before the holidays Dumbledore thought that sending him home early was a pretty good punishment."

"What??? Sirius is not here? I can't believe this, he is so lucky" she snarled. "Is Severus at the hospital wing?"

"Yes Jess," said Lily. "Send him a hello, will you?"

"Of course, see you later."

"See you," both said.

It was worse than Jessica thought. His face was torn apart, he had brushes and cuts all over his body.

"Is he going to be okay Madam?" Jessica asked Madam Pomfrey.

"Sure he will," she said cleaning some of the cuts. "He has to heal first, and it's very painful. I put him to sleep so he won't feel as much."

"What did Sirius do to him? I looks like he was bitten by a dozen guys," said Jessica, holding his still hands.

"Not sure, but I know he did it alone, with one single spell"

"When will he be awake?" Jessica asked.

"Tomorrow morning, then I will keep him for another day and he should be good to go."

"There is no point on staying here then, I will come back tomorrow." Jessica got her wand out pointed to an empty vase by his bed and a jet of pink light came out, a dozen of pink, yellow and white roses appeared, then she left.

Next morning, Jessica went down to the hospital wing, right before lunch time to see him. He was sitting reading a book. He looked better than yesterday but he was still in pretty bad shape.

"Hello Severus, how are you feeling?" She asked sitting on the foot of his bed.

"Not so good, every inch of my body aches," he complained.

"I am sorry about that." said Jessica, hoping Snape would say something, but he didn't even look at her. "Severus, was this my fault?"

Snape snapped the book close and looked at her. "Of course not, haven't you heard? Sirius Black did this to me, I am pretty sure it was not you."

The sarcasm was not helping the awkward situation.

"I meant, if Sirius did that because what happened at Hogsmeade?" asked Jessica quietly.

"Lets say that we started arguing about that at first," he acknowledged. "Then the discussion got worse, you know we don't get along, I provoked him and he cursed me."

"I wish I was there," she said feeling guilty. "I would not let him do that to you."

"I wish you were there too." He laid down and was looking at the ceiling. "I know I will regret this forever, but it needs to be said."

"What is it, Severus?"

"Sirius Black really likes you," he sighed. "I never saw him that upset. You should've seen his face when he spoke of you, I recognized the shine, the spark that came out of his eyes. He was crying saying that I won."

"Why are you telling me all this?" She felt confused. "You told me he was not made for me, that he can't make me happy."

"Yes I did tell you that, and although I hate the idea of you and Sirius together, I have to admit, he will make you happy, because I think he really loves you."

"I rather be with you than him." And Jessica really meant that, Sirius was her least favorite person at that moment, after seeing what he did with Severus.

"You don't mean that, you just feel bad for me, that's all," he said.

Jessica was crying now, she didn't even know why, she was very confused. _"Was Severus dumping her?"_ She did not want to carry on the conversation so she decided to leave, she said goodbye and went to Gryffindor common room.

She really wanted the week to fly by, she wanted to go home, have long talks with her mom. Lily and James were glued together so Jessica didn't have anyone to talk to, plus Lily was so happy that Jessica did not want to spoil her moment.

Jessica gave a lot of thought to what Severus said, and she decided that she would not close the door, she would not turn the page on Sirius until next term, when she would see him again. Now she crossed Remus from her admirer list and added Sirius, it seemed like a better option at the moment.

The morning she was going home was beautiful, bright blue sky, just like she liked it. Her heart felt warm. When she arrived at King Cross Station she saw Snape and wanted to talk with him.

"I am glad you are feeling better, I need to talk to you, do you have a second?" asked Jessica.

"I do, my mom is always late," said Snape.

"I've been thinking about what you said, and decided that I won't close the door until I see Sirius again, but I need to know what do you think about my decision."

Snape looked really annoyed. "I won't lie to you, I will be very hurt. But at the same time I would not have it any other way. He likes you and you obviously like him too. My hate for Black is eternal, we can never get along. Our relationship would be much colder, but sometimes you need to choose love over friendship. I got the title "friend" and Sirius got "love", so you will have to choose. But I can give you a last friend advice; choose love."

"If I have to choose, I choose you. I don't want to lose you," she shocked up.

"Deep inside you know you would choose Sirius over me," he added. "I accepted it and you have to do the same. I got to go now, I think I saw my mom. See you at Hogwarts."

***

On Christmas morning Willy woke the whole house really early. He was so anxious to open his presents. Jessica gave her gifts first, she gave her mom a wizard recipe book, it had step-by-step moving pictures, Lydia loved it thinking it was very helpful. Dad got a tie that would change color according to his mood, he was amazed. "It's like a million ties in one, it changes everyday", plus he got every flavor jelly beans, he loved giving them out at work. And Willy got is miniature broom that really flies, a fake wand and lots of chocolate frogs.

Jessica got lots of muggles clothes from her grandparents; some board games and Lily send her a book, Wizards Careers, Jessica thought that would be extremely helpful. Her parents saved the best for last, they gave her jewelry, a black pearl with white gold necklace with matching earring, they were beautiful, breath taking.

"Thank you mom, thank you dad, it's wonderful, it is perfect for graduation," she said as her dad helped her to put on the necklace.

"Welcome, we want you to look your best on your big day," said Mrs. Thompson.

An owl swooped in and dropped a small box on top of Jessica's lap. She opened the box and saw a ring. White gold just like her necklace and earrings, but on top had a Gryffindor Lion.

Willy jumped to take a closer look. "Jess, it looks like it opens."

And he was right she opened the top part of it and an 3D Hogwarts castle appeared before their eyes. It was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

"Nice surprise", she looked at her mom and dad, "I never saw it coming."

"Except we did not send it to you," said Mr. Thompson. "Read the card."

She opened the card and it had a small note inside.

_**It looks like our story got to an end before it started. **_

_**I am sorry you never found out who I am, **_  
_**and now there is no point in telling you, because we won't**_  
_**be together. I will love you always.**_  
_**I bought you that ring several months ago and **_

_**I still want you**_ _**to have it.**_  
_**Merry Christmas!!**_  
_**Your admirer. **_


	4. Chapter 4

"Wake up sleeping beauty", Jessica heard someone call. She slowly opened her eyes and saw Lily sitting on her bed.

"Lily," she said sleepily. "When did you arrive? Are you early?"

"Early? What are you talking about?" said Lily laughing. "It's past eleven, I got here few moments ago."

"Past eleven? Really?" she said stretching. " Sorry I wasn't awake when you got here, I intended to."

"I know you did, and it's okay. So did you have a good Christmas?"

"Lovely Christmas, I should say. And you?" And they went on, talking all day.

Jessica really missed her long talks with Lily, just the two of them. Lily told her everything that had happened between James and her, and Jessica told everything that had happened with her. By night fall they finally seemed to catch up with everything.

"Oh Jess, I never want to get behind again, I promise you right now, I will give you more attention next term, I will divide my time more properly."

"Good idea, I am not complaining," Jessica said smiling. "I did not enjoy all the alone time last term."

"You could at least get yourself a boyfriend," Lily gave her a gently tap on the shoulder. "It would make things a lot easier for me."

"Hey I don't choose to be _boyfriendless_ it just happened that way. I think I am too smart, that's why the guys run away." But they were laughing now.

"I need to ask you something," said Lily catching her breath. "James wanted to spend New Year with me. Do you mind if he comes to spend the night here? Then we can go back together to Hogwarts the next day. I told him I needed to talk with you first."

"I won't mind if he comes," she said, imagining how it would be like having James over. "I think it will be fun."

"Do you think your parents will mind?"

"Are you kitting? Meet a pure-blood wizard, they will be delighted," she said brightly.

"Thanks, he is sending an owl tomorrow, so I can let him know."

The next few days they spend having lots of fun, Jessica always enjoyed her holidays and Lily just made it better. They spend a lot of time with Willy and Mrs. Thompson, they went shopping almost everyday, and for ice-cream at the diner near their house.

"So, Jess, you never told me what happened with your secret admirer." Her dad started asking her on dinner time.

"Lets say that it ended before started," said Jessica.

"You know who send you the notes?" he pushed on.

"No, dad." He had a puzzled look on his face, but Jessica did not care, she did not want to tell the whole story again.

"When will your friend arrive Lillian?" asked Mrs. Thompson, trying to take the focus out of Jessica.

"He will get here tomorrow morning", said Lily.

"How is he coming?" asked Mr. Thompson.

"I told him that the easiest way was to apparate. He will be here ten o'clock in the morning."

That night Jessica had a hard time falling asleep. Next morning James would be there, they would go out all together, and she was going to feel like a third wheel, making her really depressed. She decided she would call her next door friend and ask him to go with them, so she would not be alone. Brian Mitchell was her first boyfriend, they dated two summers ago, he was really cool guy, but Jessica never trusted him enough to tell him her secret, that she is a witch.

Next morning there were a lot of excitement over breakfast. It was Saturday morning so Mr. Thompson was home as well. Willy had his full Gryffindor uniform and his fake wand in hands.

After breakfast the whole family and Lily went to the living room to wait for James. Precisely ten o'clock they heard a loud _crack_. All the Thompsons let a scream out. Willy covered his eyes.

Jessica was very surprised, she saw two people instead of one. She was expecting just James Potter, but he was accompanied by no other the Sirius Black himself.

There were moments of silence. No one spoke, not even Lily.

"Welcome, both of you, so which of you is James?" Mrs. Thompson decided to break the uncomfortable silence.

"That would be me. You must be Mrs. Thompson, Lydia I think?" said James looking at Jessica who nodded. "Nice to meet you. I have to apologize, I brought a friend with me. He came to stay with me last night, I didn't have time to send an owl ahead."

"Not a problem," said Mrs. Thompson. "And you are?" asking Sirius.

"My name is Sirius Black," he said extending his had. "And is a pleasure to meet you."

But Mrs. Thompson did not say anything, she just looked at Jessica, who felt her face burn, she was sure that she was red all over.

"Are you two real wizards? I mean do you come from a family of wizards too?" asked Willy.

"Yes we are, even our grandparents, and great-grandparents," said James.

"Wow," said Willy.

"And by the looks of it you are a wizard too. Can you do any spells?" asked Sirius.

"Of course not," snapped Jessica. "You know very well that I am the only one in my family."

"Come down, I was just kitting," said Sirius. "Do you mind if we have a word? In private."

But Jessica did not say anything. They were staring at each other, Jessica with piercing eyes. The air was really heavy, Jessica was really angry because Sirius showed up without asking and Sirius seemed to be really calm with the whole situation and it annoyed her even more.

"Willy we need to go to the store. Shall we go now?" Mr. Thompson was standing up, and so did Willy, soon they were out the door.

"Oh, come on, I will show the room you are spending the night," said Mrs. Thompson. "James, Lily, follow me." And they left the room. Lily closed the door on her way out.

They were still looking at each other.

"Now, Jessica, I know you hate the idea of me coming here to your house," he said with caution. "I need to explain why I came. But I need you to hear me first. Will you listen?"

"Okay, It can't hurt," she said coldly.

"Exactly" Sirius pointed to the couch waited until Jessica had sat down, then he sat by her. "I did not plan this, I thought I was spending New Year with my family, but once again things got out of control. You know I am the least favorite person in my house and there is not even one person who really likes me. They think I am a disgrace, that I dishonored the family name when I was put into Gryffindor house.

"I had a very bad fight with my mom, and I don't think I am coming back, I got all my stuff and took it to James house last night. It didn't occur to me that he was leaving the next morning, since his parents already had plans I didn't have any choice but come here or spend the night alone. James convinced me to come, because he did not want me to stay alone."

He paused for a minute to see with Jessica would say something, but she didn't. And then he continued.

"I will stay out of your way, you won't even notice I am here. I know I screwed things big time with you and I lost my chance. But I would be more then glad to at least have you as a friend."

He was waiting for an reaction, but Jessica did not say anything again.

"Now would be the right time to say something," he said finally.

"Can I speak now?"

"That would be good," he said relieved.

"I am really sorry for what happened with your family, I am sorry that your mom doesn't see the good person you are, you are wonderful Sirius, really. Although I say you need to learn to control your temper a bit. I am not angry about Aslyn and I am sad because of what happened to Severus, and I do understand he has some blame on it also.

"I am glad that you came. I would be even more upset with you stayed alone. You don't need to stay out my way because I think is a great idea us being friends. I mean I lost Lily, you lost James. It's good to think I won't be alone."

Sirius had a big smile on his face. He stood up and started walking towards the door.

"I am glad we got that taken care of. Will you show me your house?"

"Yes." Jessica showed him the main floor and the backyard and then they went upstairs so Sirius could have a tour of the bedrooms and bathrooms. Their last stop was at the guest bedroom. They found Lily, James and Mrs. Thompson sitting just talking.

"Hello there. Did you guys resolve things?" asked James.

"Oh Yes, we did.," said Sirius proudly. "We decided we won't deny it anymore, our love is too strong, we will get married, tomorrow." .

But everybody blasted into laughter. Jessica sat by her mom, who was sitting alone in a bed and Sirius sat by James and Lily, in the other bed.

"Are you expecting mail? I see an owl flying towards your house," said Sirius

"No, I am not." She did see an owl, indeed, she hurried to open the window. She got the letter and let the owl go. Jessica found a small note inside.

_Dear Jessica,_  
_I got your present on Christmas Morning._  
_I really liked it. And you shouldn't have worried about me._  
_Once again you surprised me, like always._  
_I miss you and see you soon at Hogwarts._  
_Severus Snape_

Lily asked to read it, and Sirius read it with her. His happy face was gone.

"You send him a gift?" asked Sirius.

"I am aloud to give my friends presents," said Jessica raising her eyebrow.

"How come I didn't get one?" he asked again.

"Well, we are friends for less then one hour now, so don't complain," she smiled.

"True" said Sirius.

Everybody started laughing again.

Later that afternoon they decided to go for a walk, show the muggle neighborhood to James and Sirius, they found everything very peculiar, asked a lot of questions about everything around them. They stopped at the diner for ice-cream. It was a perfect day, not what Jessica had pictured a year ago, if someone came to her and said that she would be spending her last day of the year with Sirius and James she would say they gone crazy, followed by a hysterical laughing attack.

She would like to have a bit of romance between her and Sirius. Lily and James would often lock lips in front of them, making Jessica feel very uncomfortable. Sirius was taking his talk about being friends very seriously, Jessica did not mind having him just like a friend, he was lots of fun, he made her laugh like not other person ever did.

On their way back to her house a car stopped by them, Jessica recognized it at once, it was Brian Mitchell's car, the neighbor she dated.

"Hello Jessica, I thought I wasn't going to see you," said the boy from inside the car. "Your mom said you will leave tomorrow morning. Do you have any plans tonight?"

"Actually I do have plans." Jessica thought he was being very rude, totally ignoring her friends, he did not even say hi, pretended they were not even there. "These are my friend from school. They will spend the night with me."

"Oh, hello Lillian," said Brian, finally noticing her friends. He came out of the car, he was very tall, blond short hair and green eyes. He shook hands with James. "Hi my name is Brian, me and Jessica go way back, we grew up together."

"Nice meeting you, my name is James, James Potter," he said with a sight sneer.

Brian exploded in laugher. "And I see you brought your gang with you, at least one of them," he said looking at Sirius.

Jessica felt her face burn with embracement, she remembered she told Brian about James and his friends. They talked about them every summer, how much she disliked them.

"And you are?" Brian asked Sirius, snobbish.

"Sirius Black," he said coldly.

Brian was laughing even harder. Sirius looked like he might get is wand out any minute now, his fists were clenched.

"I am sorry," Brian tried to stop laughing, his eyes full of tears. "It's just that I never thought I would see you with these two, not after everything you told me. I mean I thought you loath them with passion," he made a greater effort to stop laughing. "Are you walking? Don't you people drive? Come on I will give you and your friends a ride back to your house."

"No thank you, I will walk," said Sirius quickly.

Brian stared at him, he stared back, both of them were very tense.

"Thank you for the offer Brian," said Jessica politely. "It's okay, we will just walk back, it's just a few blocks away."

"If you say so. Well, if you change your mind about tonight give me a call, we will go do something _fun_," he said with a rather nasty grin, eyeing Sirius from top to bottom. "And if I don't see you again Happy New Year, call me when you get home next summer. We will go out." He hopped in the car and left, rather fast. Lily was the first one to speak after he left.

"Honestly Jess, I can't believe you actually kissed that moron."

"What? You kissed him? Did you date him?" Sirius looked disgusted.

"I dated him a summer, he was nicer then," she said. "He did change a lot."

And they started walking again. Lily and James walked in front of them. They were talking in almost like a whisper, they would giggle every once and I while. It was very uncomfortable. Sirius did not speak again until they got home. Willy came running to the door when they arrived.

"Do you want to play a game of chess with me Willy?" Sirius asked.

"Really? Sure, it's up in my room." They went upstairs, Lily and James went to the living room, when Jessica walked by they were kissing. She went to the kitchen to offer her mom help, but Mrs. Thompson had everything under control.

Jessica went up to get ready for the evening. She was the first one ready but she stayed in her bedroom until her mom called her downstairs. When she got to the dining room everybody was already waiting for her. Sirius was talking with Mr. Thompson and both were laughing uncontrollably. Jessica was glad Sirius mood was back to normal.

It was a wonderful evening, every thing was perfect, and everybody had a great time. Right before midnight Mrs. Thompson explained a family tradition. They would write their goal in a piece of paper and open it the following year and see what they accomplished and what they didn't.

Jessica got her list and felt very embarrassed as her mom made her read it aloud.

Study very hard for the NEWTs

Read at least twenty books  
Decide what career I want to proceed  
Be open to new experiences  
Ignore Potter and his gang completely

She felt even more embarrassed when no one said anything.

"Wow, I was way off, wasn't I?" she broke the ice. "The most disturbing thing is that I don't know what I will do after I am done with school. I mean most of the students my age already know what they want to do, but I have no idea."

"It's okay. You still have time to work on it," said Mr. Thompson.

"Ignore us, hey?" said James smiling, he was resting his head lazily on Lily's lap.

"Yes, but I also wrote be open to new experiences. And I did, didn't I?

"You sure did, and I am very glad we made peace," said James.

"Me too," said Sirius.

The rest of the family read their goals. Then, Mrs. Thompson gave them blank pieces of paper and pencils, Sirius loved writing with pencil.

"Look it's not messy like our quills and parchment," he commented.

"You write all your goals for next year and if we don't get the chance of being all together again I will send an owl if your goals," said Mrs. Thompson.

Jessica already knew what she wanted.

Study hard for the NEWTs (again)  
Get good grades on my NEWTs  
Decide what career I want to proceed (again)  
Be open for new experiences (again)

She gave a little thought, considering if she wanted to write what she was thinking. After a few seconds she wrote.

Be in love

Quickly she folded her piece of paper in four and gave it to her mom. After everybody was done Lydia put them all in a box. At midnight the celebrated New Year, Sirius and James went overboard shooting sparks out of their wands, making Jessica's family admire the little show.

Lily ad Jessica surprised the boys in their bedroom after the Thompson's went to sleep. Lily snuggled comfortably under James blanket. Sirius set on the bed making room for Jessica. They slept less then two hours that night, as the late hours of night arrived their conversations got sillier and sillier to the point Jessica stomach muscles hurt after laughing for hours.

Jessica woke up sleeping on Sirius bed, tucked in warmly under the blanket. Sirius however was asleep on the floor next to his bed. Jessica watched him with a overwhelming sense of respect growing inside her. She decided to wake him up.

"You didn't have to sleep on the floor," she whispered.

"I wasn't sure," he whispered back. "Didn't want you to freak out like last time."

"I wouldn't," she said softly positively beaming at him. "Anyway, you better come and try to get some rest before my mom comes to wake us up."

She got out of bed letting Sirius have it back. She woke Lily up who understood without a word it was time to go back to her own bed. Jessica hardly closed her eyes when her mom came knocking on her door. All four looked like zombies over breakfast.

"Now, I was thinking", said Mrs. Thompson. "It will better if you guys just apparate in Hogsmeade. We can't fit all of you in my car. Is that okay?"

"Not a problem," said Jessica. "I never did that before. It should be fun."

After breakfast they gathered at the living said their goodbyes. Right before Jessica left her dad whispered into her ear, "Love can be easily mistaken by loathing." Jessica was shocked, but a split of seconds they were all the way in the platform at Hogsmeade.

"What did your dad say?" Lily asked.

"Nothing important, dad stuff," said Jessica trying to figure out what he meant. "What do we do now?" she asked. "Do we have to wait for the Hogwarts Express? That will take forever."

"No I heard they send a few carriages for the seventh years that just apparate instead hiding the train," replied Sirius.

They waited a few more minutes and people started showing up. And before long, carriages started lining up in front of them.

It felt nice to get there earlier. Jessica had time to unpack before she went down to the welcome back feast. Not mentioning she took a long nap, enough to recover her lack of asleep.

The month of January flew by. Her teachers were loading her with homework, she was extra busy with potions. Remus was getting really good, and they were doing homework all together, Remus, Jessica, Lily, James, Sirius and Peter. Ashlyn convinced Professor Slughorn to trade partners after what happened between Sirius and her. So now, Peter and Sirius were together and Ashlyn got Snape as a partner. Jessica did not talk much with Severus, he was avoiding her. She was spending most of time with Sirius, they were always together and Severus did not dare come near them.

Early in February they played Quidditch against Ravenclaw and they won. They were now one game away from finals. They had to play against Hufflepuff, early March and if they win, final would be against Slytherin.

Gryffindor Tower was in a festive mood that night. Everybody was excited about the final, no one cared about homework, they were singing, playing and laughing. The excitement was so big that after everybody went to bed Jessica could not fall asleep. So, like always, she decided to go down to the fireplace.

After a while she heard the portrait open, someone was coming in, _but who could it be? who went out in the middle of the night?_ She looked around and she saw, Sirius, James and Peter. They froze as soon as they saw her.

"Where did you guys go?" said Jessica interested.

"Remus wasn't feeling well so we took him to the hospital wing," Sirius told her.

"Is he alright? I want to go see him." The three got really uncomfortable with the question.

"Madam Pomfrey says he can't have any visitors, that's why we came back, he will be better in couple of days," said James. They made their way to the dormitories but Sirius came and sat by Jessica.

"I was wondering, I don't have a date to go with me to Hogsmeade on Valentines Day," he said. "And if no one asked you I was wondering if you would go with me."

Jessica did not believe what she heard. Was he asking her out on a date, did that mean they still had a chance? Since she did not say anything he started talking again.

"If you are going with someone already it's okay. Did someone ask you?"

"Oh no, sorry, I was just thinking, do you mean go with you like on a date?" she asked

"Uh, no, just like two friends" he quickly added. "That's how much I appreciate your friendship," he said making fun.

"Okay then, we will go together," she said laughing.

"Can't sleep?" asked Sirius.

"Yes, to much excitement."

"I don't blame you, it was a big day for you." he said. "Do you mind if I join you?"

"Uh, you already did," she added.

"And are you okay with it?" he asked and she nodded smiling.

Sirius put his arms around her and they stayed there watching the fire burn, Jessica dozed off for a bit, then she woke up and stood up.

"What's going on?" asked Sirius.

"I am not sleeping down here again. I'm going back to bed. Good night Sirius." He stood up and started walking to his dormitory too.

"Good night Jessica, sweet dreams."

On Valentines morning Jessica made sure to put the cutest outfit she had, although Sirius said they were going as friends she still wanted to look good. Before she left her bedroom she thought a bit about her admirer, he did not write again since Christmas, although she was almost sure it was Severus she couldn't say it was him. Jessica waited until Lily got ready. They were almost out the door when something occurred to Jessica.

"Wait a second Lily". She opened and trunk and got her diary out, two pieces of parchment fell down.

It was to two letters she got over Christmas. One from Severus, and the other from her admirer.

"Lily look at this." Lily hurried to look at the letter. "The hand writing, they don't match. It's not the same person who wrote the letters. So Severus it's not my admirer."

"Oh my goodness, you are right," said Lily, she got the letters and was analyzing it closely. "How come we didn't think of it before?"

"No idea. Now I am back to the beginning. No idea. Do you think it could be Sirius?"

"I know you want to be him, but I don't know. Sirius is more confident then that. I don't picture Sirius afraid of telling you about his feelings." Lily gave the letters back and Jessica put them back on her trunk. "We don't want to be late, I will think about it today and I we can talk about it later."

"Deal," Jessica agreed.

They met the boys outside the Great Hall. Jessica noticed that Sirius made an extra effort to look nice also.

The day, once again, was perfect. They had a great time together. Sirius got Jessica a very cute Valentine card and I box of chocolate.

"Thanks, I have a card for you too." She got his card out of her pocket and gave it to him. It was without a doubt a friendship card. Jessica got a little disappointed, but she liked it anyway.

"How about we stop to get a butterbeer?" asked Sirius. "We have just one hour left."

"Great idea," said Jessica, following him to the Three Broomstick.

Sirius got Jessica her drink and they went looking for an empty table. Jessica saw Lily and James sitting nearby, they waived, but before Jessica could even think about joining them Sirius got hold of her arm and started walking in the opposite direction. Then, she spotted Severus sitting alone, Sirius changed directions once more and finally chose a table.

"Sorry, not feeling social today. I wanted to talk with you." But before he could continue a boy sat by him.

"Sirius what do you know about the Shrienking Shack?" said the little boy.

"Regulus, now it's not a good time," he hissed. The boy looked at Jessica and turned back to Sirius.

"You should try to make peace with mom, you know. You will make things even worse if she finds out you went out with a muggle."

"First of all, Jessica is not a muggle, she is a very gifted witch," Jessica was glad Sirius did not let the boy away with such a comment. "Second, I don't care what mom thinks. I am never going back. I already made plans."

"Whatever, if you say so," said the boy named Regulus. "Anyway, some boys dared me to go into the Shrienking Shack, and I was wondering if you think it's true what people say about that place. A guy down the street said he heard lots of screams there last week."

"Regulus, why do you think you need to do this kind of things?" said Sirius rolling his eyes. "If I were you, I would keep away from the Shrienking Shack. It's very dangerous. I am not sure what's inside but I heard the screams myself and it was not a pretty sound. So don't do it"

"Okay, you convinced me. I won't do it," and he left.

"My little brother," said Sirius.

"I didn't know you had a brother at Hogwarts."

"I do, he is in Sytherin, he doesn't talk to me that much, you know. Because of my family history." Sirius went very quiet after that.

"Did you really hear screams over at the Shrienking Shack?" asked Jessica.

Sirius was laughing. "I knew you were going to ask me about that. Can you keep a secret?"

"Yes, of course," she said.

"There is nothing there," he said. "I've been there lots of time."

"Inside the Shrienking Shack? How did you get there?" Jessica asked surprised.

"I can show you," he whispered. "Do you want me to take you?"

"Uh, I don't know," she shivered. "Are you sure there is nothing inside?" she asked worried.

"Yes, there is no harm if you go there today, the screaming comes just once a month, and already happened this month, you will be totally safe." Sirius insisted.

"Okay, I want to see it," she said trying her best to trust him.

"I will take after dinner," he added. "I need to speak with James, Remus and Peter before I take you there."

"You wanted to talk with me about something, what is it?" asked Jessica.

"Oh, nothing, we don't have time now. It's time to go."

After dinner time Sirius took her outside and they walked into the forest.

"We need to get through there," said Sirius, he pointed to Whomping Willow.

"Are you barking mad?" She was horrified. "Do you think I can get past the Whomping Willow? Maybe this is not a good idea."

"Relax, I made arrangements," he said getting hold of her hand for comfort.

"Aaahhh," Jessica screamed.

"What's the matter?"

"Sorry, sorry, a rat just ran by me," Jessica watched the rat get close to the Whomping Willow, and he sat right on the trunk of the tree which stopped moving at once. "That is really odd," she said

"Coast is clear, we can get through now." Sirius ignored her comment. They got into a hole that took them below, they were under the Whomping Willow._ "Lumos" _said Sirius, holding his wand in front of him. They walked for a long time, Jessica panting a bit trying to keep up. They finally got to the end of the tunnel. Jessica could see a light coming trough a small opening.

"Are you sure it's safe Sirius?" she said still feeling skeptical.

"You got to trust me okay?" he said with conviction.

Sirius pulled himself out of the hole then helped Jessica up. She looked around and had no doubt she was inside the Shrienking Shack. The windows were boarded up, as she looked around she saw lots of furniture, smashed to pieces. The place was so spooky it make her automatically hold Sirius arm very tight.

"I know it's not a pretty sight," said Sirius, rather enjoying Jessica's proximity. "Let me take you to the top, it has a beautiful view."

They went up a crumbling stairs. The whole place was trashed, everything was broken, and it was extremely dusty.

When they got to the top Sirius went close to a window and pulled a board out, and then another one. Jessica got closer to look at the view, her mouth dropped, he was right. It was the most beautiful thing she ever seen.

"It's Hogwarts," said Jessica. She could see the whole castle, the night was falling and the lights inside Hogwarts were on, the sky was multi color because the sun setting. Jessica could not take her eyes of the view for a few minutes, she looked at Sirius and found that he was looking at her, not the view.

"What? That's something wrong with my hair?" Jessica tried to fix her hair but Sirius got her hand before she could get to it.

"No, it looks great." he said. Jessica stomach felt very sick, Sirius was looking at her, the way he did long time ago. "I need to tell you something." Jessica didn't say anything, just kept looking inside his eyes.

"Jessica, I think I am in love with you. I wanted to tell you a long time ago, but I couldn't. I didn't think you liked me, well, I actually knew you didn't like me. So I had to approach you in a different way. I always liked you since first time I saw you on our first journey to Hogwarts, but you and Lily glued together and every time James and I tried to impress you, we looked stupid.

"When I got to my third year, I started going out with lots of girls to see if you would get jealous, maybe get in line," he laughed nervously. "But it didn't work, I think it made it worse. Then I kept waiting for the right time to tell you this, but the time never came. I knew the seventh year would be my final chance, so I planed everything in advance.

"I wrote you a letter during summer, to start getting you ready for what was about to come. I don't even know if it worked. It seemed to me that you thought Remus had written the letters. So I stopped little by little since you did not think it was me at all. Then the whole fiasco happened right before Christmas, I felt my insides burn with hate when I saw Snape kiss you, I honestly thought it was all over.

"But you surprised once again, when I got in your house, you were very kind to me, and I don't even know if I deserved it. It was great to start all over, to be your friend, it was more then I could ask for. Since we are doing so well as friends I decided to tell you about my feelings, so I know once and for all if there is even a small chance you will love me back."

As he finished, Jessica was blown away, she felt happy in a way never thought possible.

"Thank you for the ring," she said, knowing she sounded stupid but it was the first thing that came to mind.

"Welcome." Sirius was still holding her hand looking at her with warmth and respect in his eye. "So, do I have I chance with you?"

"Sirius I've waited for this moment the whole year," she felt very emotional. "First to know who my admirer was, then as the year went by I wished it was you all along." He came closer, they were almost nose to nose. "I need to tell you that your plan worked very well, because I think…" she paused to create a bit of suspense and to put the right words together. "I might be in love with you as well." She could see herself reflecting in his eyes.

Sirius smiled widely. He held her by her waist pulled her towards him and hugged her, very tight, she did not want to let go, her heart was racing, she was so happy that she thought she was going to explode, felt like a balloon was expanding inside her.

He let go and looked into her eye. "I am the luckiest guy alive," he said and to her surprise Sirius chuckled and kissed her on the lips.


	5. Chapter 5

Jessica felt like she was floating, like her feet left the floor. Sirius held her tenderly, his lips felt soft and warm, his fingers tangled on her hair as he gently caressed her neck. She did not want to let go, so she drew in feeling his body touching hers. She'd never been kissed like that, her whole body was reacting to his touch. The kiss was getting heated by the second, both breathing became labored. Suddenly the heard a loud bang from downstairs. They broke off, Sirius quickly stood in front of Jessica attempting to protect her.

"What was that?" asked Jessica, getting hold of her wand.

"Not sure just stay behind me, you will be fine," he said very fast with his wand out as well.

For a few moments they did not hear a sound.

"SIRIUS…. SIRIUS…" They heard someone yelling from downstairs. Sirius put his wand way and walked a few steps towards the door.

"This better be good Remus," roared Sirius. Jessica noticed at once he was very upset, she'd seen him lose his temper many times before.

They heard footsteps hurrying up the stairs. Remus appeared on the doorway, almost out of breath, looked like he ran all the way from Hogwarts, his face was very pale.

"It's Snape" said Remus. Still trying to catch his breath.

"What about him?" Sirius snarled.

"He… he… saw you… he saw you bring Jessica," said Remus panting heavily. "He was watching you… when you got past the Whomping Willow… and through the gap…We tried to hold him back …for as long as we could… but he broke free. I think … I think he is going… to the headmaster."

Sirius turned around, Jessica could see his face now, it changed. He had a look that told Jessica they were in loads of trouble.

"We need to get back," he said getting hold of Jessica hands. They were already running when they got to the top of the stairs. Sirius helped Jessica get down to the tunnel again. "I need you to run as fast as you can, if we get lucky we can get there, find Snape before he gets to Dumbledore."

He got his wand out, so did Jessica and Remus, "Lumos," they chorused.

Jessica did not think twice, she kept running as fast as she could. It was hard to tell how she was keeping up with Sirius and Remus, but she kept going. When they got to the bottom of the Willow, Sirius got a broken branch that was near them and prod the knot on the trunk. Jessica saw the tree stop moving. Sirius got out first, then helped Jessica out, Remus followed.

"Please let it not be too late," Sirius mumbled.

But as they turned around they froze. Dumbledore was standing there, watching them, he had James and Peter on one side and Severus stood on the other side. All of them were very serious, Snape was the only one grinning. It was not a pretty sight.

"Professor, I can explain," Sirius blurted out.

"You better,' Dumbledore said firmly. "Follow me. We will resolve this at my office."

The walk to Dumbledore office was very tense and quiet, no one spoke a word. Jessica and Sirius were not even holding hands anymore. They stopped right in front of a giant stone gargoyle.

"Sugar Quill," said the headmaster and the gargoyle jumped aside and they stepped onto the foot of a spiral stone staircase, and they started moving slowly upward, when the stair stopped moving Dumbledore turned to Jessica.

"Miss Thompson do you mind waiting outside for a minute?" he asked. "I need a quick word with these five first."

"I don't mind at all, I will wait here," said Jessica gloomily.

Jessica sat on the stair and waited, she kept looking at the polished oak door with a brass door knocker and wondering what was going on inside. She did not know what to do now, she did know what kind of trouble she was in, she kept thinking "How bad did I mess up?", "Will I be expelled?" She was really worried. At least ten minutes went by and Severus came out. Jessica jumped onto her feet.

"Severus, is the headmaster pretty mad?" she asked urgently.

"Of course he is mad," he said in a sniffy voice. "I always hated how those four always broke the rules, like they think they are better than we are, but in reality they are much worse. But I never thought you sink to their level. I never thought I see the day that Jessica Thompson, miss I do everything right, would break a school rule, and worse, much worse, break multiple rules in one single night, or should I say in couple of hours."

"Severus, please…," she started, but he did not want to hear what she had to say. She was crying hard now.

"I do not want to talk with you anymore, I consider you a traitor," said Severus darkly. "When I told you to follow your heart in regards of Sirius Black I did not think you would become one of them. The school year is almost over, please, lets ignore each other the best way we can."

Dumbledore opened the door as soon as Severus finished talking. Severus turned his back and went down the stairs.

"We are ready for you now," said Dumbledore with a soft voice. "You can come inside Miss Thompson."

Jessica tried to wipe most of her tears and then went in. She saw the four friends sitting across from Dumbledore's table. Remus, Sirius, James, Peter and an empty chair by him. Jessica sat on the only empty chair, she looked at Sirius and he had his eyes fixed on her, but he still looked worried.

"Now we have a little situation here," started Dumbledore. "I trusted the four of you with a secret, and you didn't keep it. Now I hope you understand…" he looked at Remus "…that Miss Thompson will have to know the whole truth," he turned to Jessica. "You see, all five of us share a little secret, and now our circle will get bigger and we will have to trust you to keep our secret."

Jessica nodded and Dumbledore went on.

"Seven years ago I accepted a student that needed special care. A very bright young man with a brilliant mind, but he had a health situation, shall we put it like that. I knew no other school would take him in, so I did." Jessica knew at once he was talking about Remus, she looked at him and his face was bright red. "Since his condition required him to go way a lot, I asked to plant the Whomping Willow on the grounds to guard a tunnel that would take him straight to the Shrienking Shack, so he would be safe and to ensure no one would find him.

"He's been going there since his first year, all I had to do was to start a rumor that the noises from inside the shack were angry spirits, so not even a soul would dare to get near it," Dumbledore paused. "Now Remus, since this is your secret I want you to tell Ms Thompson what your condition is."

But Remus did not say anything, it looked like he did not know what to say, or how to say it. Jessica was thinking really hard now, "he has a condition, that he needs to get way from the castle, she recalled that he was gone at least once a month, people in the village said they heard loud screams, agony screams from inside the Shack…. Oh, my gosh." It can't be what she was thinking.

"Remus, are you… I mean, could it be that you are…" she babbled. "Are you a werewolf?"

All five of them looked at her at once. Sirius had a big smile on his face, Remus seemed to be in shock, Dumbledore had a half smile.

"How did you know?" asked Remus surprised.

"I kind of figured," she said brightly. "After everything Dumbledore just told me, it was kind of obvious."

"You think really fast. I am impressed," said Dumbledore. "Now, let me tell you again, this is not to leave this room, I trust you won't say a word about…"

But James suddenly interrupted.

"Professor, I was thinking, since Jessica knows, I think is only fair that Lily knew too."

Dumbledore stared at James for a second the said. "That's up to Remus to decide."

All the heads turned at Remus. He considered.

"Okay, but we will have to stop there, or the whole school will know by the end of the year."

"Thanks Moony," James beamed.

"Now I want you to go to your dormitories," Dumbledore added. "I believe you will want to tell Miss Evans tonight, but after that I don't want to hear another word about this."

"It's a deal," said Sirius.

On her way back to the Gryffindor tower Jessica felt great. She lived all the possible emotions in the same day. She felt alive. When they were half way to the tower Sirius put his arms around her and whispered into her ear. "It ended up being a perfect day after all, now I don't need to keep secrets from you." And he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

When they got to the common room it was full as an usual valentines evening, cards shaped like a heart everywhere you looked. Lily saw the portrait open, she jumped to her feet and ran towards them.

"Where were you?" she sounded extremely frustrated. "I can't believe you guys left me here all alone. And James on Valentines Day? Our first one. I can't believe this."

James tried to calm her down, he tried to hug her but she pushed him away. She looked at Jessica and froze. She saw that Jessica was holding hands with Sirius.

"What am I missing?" Lily sounded calmer but still very frustrated.

"Lily we need to talk," said Jessica.

"Yes, in private, up in our room please," said James. He put his arms around her and this time she did let him.

They walked across the common room, Jessica noticed several girls following them with their eyes, the girls looked as though they seen a ghost. It took a while for Jessica to realize they were looking at her. Sirius was really popular with the girls, and he always dated several of them every term. Jessica thought she was going to get hit by a hex or jinx as soon as she turned her back at them.

Lily could not believe what she heard. As they told everything that happened and about Remus, she stood there, not saying a word, as though she was in shock. When they finally finished telling the tale, it took Lily a few moments to recover and speak again.

"Wow, that's a lot of information to sink in. Jessica you had the courage to go inside the Shrieking Shack?" she said amazed. "I didn't know you had it in you. Well, Remus I am not surprised about your secret. It was kind of obvious, I guess I always knew. I can't believe Dumbledore let you guys off without detention." She took a breath and looked at Jessica. "Oh, Jess, I am so glad you guys got together, finally, it will be so cool, me and James, you and Sirius, it can't get any better than this"

The next few weeks felt like a dream. Jessica never felt happier in her entire life, Sirius was a dream come true, a true Gentleman. They did everything together, on Sundays afternoons they took a break from school work and sat by the lake, they talked for hours, and Sirius was definitely a really good kisser. Jessica was really surprised how Sirius was actually studying a lot, she knew it was just because of her, but it did not matter, she enjoyed being around him and really loved the fact that he would do anything to be close to her, even study.

Potions was Jessica favorite subject again, she was really enjoying Remus company, since he told her about his werewolf condition seemed like he was more open, he often would come up with a very funny clever joke and they laughed a lot during class. Jessica also found out the Remus was really smart, she always thought he wasn't, but he really enjoyed reading and often they exchanged books, then they would discuss them.

When potions class was over Professor Slughorn came over to their table.

"I need to talk to you two. Mind waiting a little bit?"

"No, professor, we can wait," said Lupin.

They waited a bit, Jessica saw Sirius waiting by the door she stood up and went to talk to him.

"Slughorn wants to talk to us," she said kindly. "You can go ahead without me."

"Do you think you coming to Transfiguration?" asked Sirius.

"I think I will, it probably won't take more than a few minutes. "

Sirius kissed her, she knew she was turning pink, she felt embarrassed when he did that in front of bunch of people, especially in front of professors.

"I see you later," said Sirius.

"Yes, please save me a seat by you."

"I will," he winked.

When she turned around the classroom was empty and Remus and Slughorn were waiting for her, she quickly walked back to her table and sat down.

"The reason why I needed to talk to you is, that it came to attention that Miss Thompson knows about Mr. Lupin condition."

Remus turned bright pink and asked. "Who told you?"

"Dumbledore of course," he said importantly as he walked behind them and put his hands on Remus shoulder. "Don't worry boy, there is no need to stress. I think Miss Thompson here can help you. I learned quite recently that Damocles is working in a highly complicated potion, made out of aconite. It can help you a lot."

"What does that potion do? Will I be cured?" asked Remus.

"No, sadly it won't cure lycanthropy" Slughorn said slowly. "But it will make you harmless while you are as a werewolf. It will let you keep your own mind as a Remus Lupin. You won't need to leave the school, we will need to find you a safe place to stay, so no one sees you, but you won't be alone, your friends will be aloud to visit you."

"And why do you need me professor?" asked Jessica.

"Well I said Damocles is working on it, he did not get final results yet. And I was hoping you would put a small group together to help you and Remus to work on it. It's very difficult to brew, but I think you are capable of doing it."

"But professor, who can I ask help? if no one knows about Remus condition," she wondered aloud.

"You can't," he said cleverly. "That's why I said small group, with only the people that already know."

"You mean, James, Lily, Peter, Sirius, me and Remus? Do you think it's enough?" Jessica asked again.

"No," he said coolly, "Severus Snape knows too, and Dumbledore and myself will be here to assist you in anyway we can."

"Where do we start?" asked Jessica.

"A lot of reading, researching and planning," he said plainly. "Now, Remus I am done with you. I need a word in private with Miss Thompson."

Remus left the room, Jessica was feeling really uncomfortable, Slughorn stared at her a few moments before speaking.

"I see you and Mr. Black are dating," he commented.

"Yes," said Jessica coldly.

"And is it serious?"

"Yes, I think so," she replied, trying to figure out why he was asking such a thing.

"How serious?"

"We are in love serious, why?" She thought the conversation was getting weird.

"You are a brilliant young woman, with a big future ahead of you. I see you going places, and you need someone that is in the same level as you are."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"Miss Thompson, do you know Mr. Black background?"

"What about it?" she snarled.

"Well he is a bit of a trouble maker, not a brilliant mind, ran away from home last Christmas. It's the only one of his family that was not placed in my house..."

"Professor," Jessica roared without thinking. "Honestly, I am a Gryffindor too, that's not a crime, and I have no idea where are you going with this or how this concerns you."

"I don't think you two belong together," he said sharply. "I see one of two things happing, he will break your heart just because, like he did several times before with half of the school girls, or you will break his."

"I would never break his heart, I love him," she said, fighting back.

"Oh, but you will," said Slughorn scowling at Jessica. "As I said, you have a brilliant mind, and you will go places, and I am sorry to inform you, Sirius won't be invited."

"I am not going anywhere without him." She was feeling extremely annoyed. "I am not having this conversation with you, who I date it's none of your business. Now if you don't mind, sir, I am late for my next lesson."

"No I am not done," he said. "I am sorry. You are right it's none of my   
business."

"No it's not, professor," she muttered.

"Have you decided your career yet?" he asked cheerfully, trying to keep things friendly.

"No I haven't," she said feeling relieved he changed subjects.

"The Ministry of Magic would be glad to have you," he added.

"That's where I plan to go, but I am not sure where."

"Well, I will be more than glad to appoint you to some of my friends," smiled Slughorn. "I know lots of important people inside of the Ministry and I will be glad to let them know what an extraordinary mind you have."

"Wow, thanks professor," said Jessica feeling dazed. "It means a lot."

"Yes, yes, I know," he said, but Jessica thought he was full of himself. " Go now, I don't want to keep you from your lesson."

Jessica left feeling a bit confused about her conversation with Slughorn, she came in to the Transfiguration classroom, apologized and sat by Sirius.

"What did he want?" he asked her, holding her hand underneath the table

"I'll tell you later," she whispered, noticing McGonagall was staring at them.

It was the second week of March. The weather was lovely outside, sunny shiny skies. Jessica wished she could stay out all day, but she was too busy with school work, keeping her inside the castle's stony walls. They were given lots of homework, the library was full of seventh years until late at night. Plus they started researching about the wolfbane potion every spare time they had.

In addition to all that, they had Quidditch finals on Saturday against Slytherin, but to win, they needed at least two hundred points ahead, because they lost their first game against Slytherin. Gryffindor played against Hufflepuff couple of weeks ago and won, taking them straight to finals. James really wanted the cup on his last year, so they were practicing everyday before dinner.

On Wednesday Jessica and Sirius left the library late at night, as usual.

"You know what I just realized?" asked Sirius on their walk back to the Gryffindor tower.  
"You forgot to tell me what Professor Slughorn wanted to talk with you in private."

Jessica feared he would ask that, and she did not forget about it, she just didn't to tell him and did all she could to avoid the subject.

"Oh, true," she said uncertainly. "Well he was very nice, really. He wanted to know if I chose a career yet. And I said no, he told me I would do well in the Ministry, I told him that I was thinking the Ministry would be good, and he said he will talk good about me to his important friends, to help me get a job."

"Wow, how did you forget to tell me that," he exclaimed. Jessica blushed, while Sirius held her even closer. "I know you will do well, you have a brilliant mind, I bet you will have a line of people wanting to interview you."

"Thanks Sirius, that is a very sweet thing to say." They turned into a deserted corridor. Jessica stopped and looked at Sirius. "What are you going to do after we leave Hogwarts?"

"I don't know," replied Sirius. "Like you, I haven't decided yet. But I do know one thing, I want a break. Seven years of school is a lot. I was thinking about taking a vacation, just me and you."

"That would be great." But Jessica felt very nervous with his answer. Did he really mean what he said? If she did get a job in the Ministry, she surely wouldn't have time to take a summer vacation.

"So, is that all you talked about?" asked Sirius.

"Let me ask you something," she paused. "Do you tell me everything about you?"

"What do you mean?" asked him again.

"Do I know everything about you? Have you told me everything about you? Do you have any secrets?"

Sirius immediately looked tense. He did not say anything.

"Sirius, I am not trying to buy a fight, I just want to know," she said with a smile. "I won't be mad."

"Okay, I do have secrets," she said mysteriously.

"That's what I thought," she said brightly. "And I think you will be okay if I tell you I choose to keep the rest of our talk as a secret."

"Why?" he whined.

"Because I think it's better that way. And please believe me and forgive me."

"Okay," he agreed but at the same time looked extremely curious and annoyed. They had their arms around their waist, and Sirius let go and held her hand.

"I found you two," they heard James. Jessica turned around and saw James and Lily coming. "I need to talk to you."

"Jess, have you talked with Severus yet?" Lily asked urgently. "We need his help if we will figure the wolfbane thing out."

Sirius looked even more annoyed after that. Jessica decided to put her arm around his waist again.

"No I haven't," said Jessica, giving Sirius a gentle squeeze so he would lighten up, and he forced a fake and adorable smile at her.

"I will go with you," Lily said kindly. "The two of us together will have a better change of convincing him."

"Sure," Jessica agreed. " So, James, what is it?"

"This Friday it is Remus birthday. And I thought it would be a good idea for us to sneak out of the castle and go celebrate in Hogsmeade."

Sirius all of a sudden looked excited. He was smiling widely nodding his head.

"WHAT?" Jessica said in shock. "Are you insane? Sneak out? Like no one will notice. Lily, you agreed to this?"

"Yes," she said timidly. "James guaranteed we won't get caught. He says they've done it for years. Ask Sirius."

Jessica looked at him and he turned red. "So one of your secrets comes out. Is it true?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yes, it's true," he said quietly.

"So how do you manage it?" she demanded. "How do you get out of the castle unseen?"

"We have our ways," said Sirius vaguely.

"More secrets?" asked Jessica, it was her turn to feel annoyed. Sirius did not say anything.

"Will you come?" asked James. There was something on his voice that made Jessica want to go with them. Lily was staring at her, with her eyes screaming "please go".

"I will," said Sirius. But Jessica did not say anything, she felt like going, but at the same time she was scared. "Oh, come on Jessica, lets go, it will be fun, and we can use a break," he implored.

"What about Quidditch practice?" Jessica pointed out. "The game it's Saturday morning,"

"I will cancel the practice," James said. "We can use a night of rest, I am sure the team will agree. And we will get back from Hogsmeade early, so we won't be tired."

"Okay," said Jessica, unsure.

"Will you come?" squeaked Lily.

"Yes," replied Jessica.

Lily jumped and hugged Jessica very tightly. "Oh, thank you Jess, I needed you there." Jessica looked at her and saw her eyes full of tears.

"What's the matter Lily?" asked Jessica, who was taken aback by Lily's reaction.

"Nothing, I am just happy you will come," she broke of her hug smiling and turned to James. "Shall we go then?"

They walked together to the tower, since it was late they said good night when they got to the common room and went to bed.

Friday morning Lily and Jessica tried to talk with Snape, it was really hard, because he was always surrounded by his classmates. After lunch they decided to call him aside no matter what.

"Severus, can we talk to you?" asked Jessica. He did not reply, totally ignored them. Avery, Rodolphus Lestrage, Evan Rosier and Wilkes were with him, sitting at the Slytherin table.

"Please don't do this, it's very important," said Jessica.

"Whatever it is, you can say it in front of my friends," he finally said sniffily.

"Friends? Since when you got friends? We are your friends, not them," Jessica said without thinking. She knew at once it was a huge mistake. He stood up, grabbed Lily and Jessica by the arm and dragged them off of the Great Hall, it even hurt a little bit.

"You do not have the right to talk with me like that, especially in front of my friends," he said, finally letting go of their arm, when they got to the grounds.

"I am really sorry," said Jessica rubbing her arm. " I am not used seeing you with friends, you know, we used to be your friends."

"Used to, not anymore," he said coldly. "Believe me if I could go back in time I would've never talked with you two. Filthy mudbloods."

Lily drew her wand and pointed it right at Snape's chest. Jessica was taken by surprise and did not know what to do, she felt angry and disgusted. To their surprise Snape started laughing.

"What?" he said loudly. "Are you going to attack me? Let me remind you ,silly girl, you are headgirl. So, James got to you, I see, think the rules are not meant to punish you either."

Jessica pushed the wand down and whispered, "Please Lily, come down, remember why we came." Jessica turned to Snape and said calmly. "We need you. Well, not only us, Professor Slughorn and Dumbledore asked us for something, and said you should help us with it."

"Yes, believe us," started Lily. "If we succeed we will be known forever."

Snape's greedy eyes grow wide. He stared at them suspiciously. "And what are we suppose to do?"

"Create a potion that helps werewolves," said Lily. "It helps them to keep their own mind when they transform, so they become harmless."

"Yes, we can really use your help," added Jessica. "We've done some research already, why don't you take a look at it?"

"Sorry not I am interested," snapped Snape. He turned and started walking away. Jessica and Lily followed him.

"Why not?" asked Jessica. "At least give us a reason."

"I don't want to help your little friend," he said bitterly. "I don't care about him, or any other werewolf. I don't want to be seen with you or any non-pure bloods..."

"WHAT?" roared Jessica, anger rushing through her veins, Snape had gone too far. "Since when are you a snob? Since when did you decide you are better than us? Let me remind you of something, you are not a pure blood either. I hate to be the one that breaks it to you, but your dad is a muggle, just like our parents."

"I am well aware of it," said Snape in disgust. "And you don't need you to remind me, thank you very much. Now I suggest you two leave my sight right a way. I have some dangerous curses I am dying to try."

"Try? Lets see who is quicker." Jessica wand was out and so was Snape's. Both stared with enormous amount of hate.

"Jess, really, lets go, he won't help us," Lily panicked. "We can do it alone." Jessica was still staring at Snape. Lily grabbed her arm and pulled it gently, Jessica gave in and they turned around and started walking back to the castle.

Severus started laughing loudly, mocking them. Without thinking twice Jessica turned to him and without a word a jet of red light went out of her wand straight to Snape's chest. He blasted into the air and was thrown a feet or two before he hit the grown , he laid there, motionless.

Jessica felt her heart racing as she breathed heavily, feeling weakly drained. Severus friends left the castle and saw Lily and Jessica standing there. They started coming towards the girls, when they saw Severus laying unconscious on the ground, they took their wand out immediately. Jessica looked at Lily and she had her wand out as well. Jessica was ready to duel, four against two was a fightable battle.

"What happened?" James asked urgently. Jessica looked behind her and saw James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, who quickly got their wands, aiming at the Slytherin's.

"What that...?" someone shrieked. "Someone please explain." They looked to see Professor McGonagall, shocked, staring down at them.

"They attacked Severus, professor," said Evan Rosier.

"James and Sirius follow me," she quickly assumed.

"No, not them," said Evan again. "I meant Jessica and Lillian," .

"For goodness sake, all of you. Lower you wands immediately," she commanded. "Girls, follow me," she said turning around, they closely followed her , Jessica kept thinking. _"What have I done?", "Severus was my friend.", "How could I?"_


	6. Chapter 6

The walk from the grounds to Professor McGonagall office was the longest in history. It took them forever to get there, giving Jessica e Lily plenty of time to think what kind of trouble they were in and what kind of punishment they would have. When they got to the office Professor McGonagall pointed at two chairs, Jessica and Lily sat down and McGonagall sat on the opposite chair, behind a huge desk.

"I don't know what to say," started McGonagall, her voice fading. "All the time walking here I was thinking what I could say, and to tell you the truth, I still don't know. That's in how much of a shock I am.

"Seven years, I repeat, seven years of Hogwarts, and none of you have a record of rule breaking, not one. And today I found both of you with your wands out, pointing it at bunch of students, and with one of them unconscious, like a couple of troublemakers, let me you remind you, I know for a fact you do not fall in this category. I am even afraid to ask, but who performed the Stunning?"

"I did Professor…" said Jessica but Lily quickly interrupted.

"Professor, although it was Jessica who cast the spell, I want you to know that if she hadn't done it I would've. She was only quicker than me. So I expect the same kind of punishment you give her."

"I will consider that," said McGonagall. "Mss Thompson, have you tried that spell before? I mean have you practiced casting it? I know we don't teach it here at Hogwarts."

"I never done it before, I just read about it, I heard the ministry uses it a lot. It was the first thing that came to mind. I was surprised to see Severus unconscious. I did not mean to hurt him, I didn't know I could do that," explained Jessica.

"Well, so you underestimate you power." They heard a fourth voice in the room, they turned around to see Dumbledore coming in. "I am just coming from the hospital wing and I can tell you right know, your spell worked fine. I am sure Severus won't appreciate it."

Jessica never felt so ashamed in her life. And now seeing Dumbledore come in just reassured her, she was in big trouble.

"Now since this is the first time you two broke a rule," McGonagall raised her voice a bit, "I will let you go unpunished, I trust we will never have this conversation again. I don't want you to break any rules till the end of the term, and if you do I will give you twice more detention then normal.

"For now is enough to say that I am very disappointed at both of you, I expected much more." McGonagall looked at Dumbledore and he winked at her like a sign of approval.

Jessica felt even worse after those words, she never seen anyone look at her like that before, a look showing clearly that she let Professor McGonagall down. She was right the word "disappointed" was worse than a thousand detentions.

"You may go now", said Dumbledore. "But remember what McGonagall said, we don't want to see you get caught breaking any rules. So be watchful, before you do something you might regret think twice, because you don't want to be caught." He winked again and Jessica noticed a half smile on his face.

They stood up and before leaving Jessica asked.

"How is Severus sir?"

"I won't lie, he is not well, not well at all. It will take him several days to recover. But he is in good hands." Jessica stomach rolled with guilt, she destroyed her friendship, probably forever. "I am afraid," Dumbledore went on, "It's the end of a friendship, a friendship that lasted six long years," he added, almost like he read her mind.

The door closed behind them as they walked outside of the office. Jessica wanted to say something but did not know what, she could tell Lily was going through the same problem.

"How did it go?" said two voices, suddenly James and Sirius jumped in front of them from behind a corner, they looked very nervous.

"Not too bad. We got away with it," said Lily, putting her arms around James.

"What do you mean _away with i_t?" asked Sirius.

"Well, we got away unpunished," said Jessica. "But I am not too excited about it. You should've seen McGonagall's face. She said she is very disappointed. When she said that I felt a thousand knifes cutting my stomach. It was awful."

"I am sorry, they do make us feel guilty. I've been there, done that. It will go away I promise," said Sirius.

"I hope it will, because I want to enjoy the evening. So what time are we leaving?" asked Jessica.

"Are you crazy?" said Lily with a look of horror on her face. "Are still considering going tonight? After what happened? Did you hear what Dumbledore told us?"

"Yes I heard very well what Dumbledore said," said Jessica. "That's why we have to be extra careful. You see, Dumbledore told us to think twice before breaking any rules, told us not to get caught. I think he meant, if you are going to break rules, plan it well so you won't get caught."

"First Snape, now this speech? That's it, you are definitely my soul mate," said Sirius, Jessica smiled and kissed him softly. And they walked away.

"What have you done to her? Is it brain wash? How did you do that?" They could hear James joking loudly. "Sirius, listen to me. You are a really bad influence…" and he went on, but James voice got lost in the distance.

Later that day they met at the boys dormitory, to go to Hogsmeade. They planned really well, over and over again to assure they wouldn't get caught.

"So you guys said you had some things to show us before we leave. What is it?" asked Jessica. She was really curious because Sirius told her that tonight she would find out his secrets.

"We wanted to show you this," said James. He got a piece of parchment out of his pocket.

"A piece of parchment. Is this some kind of a joke?" said Lily.

"No it's not a joke. This piece of parchment saved our life many times," replied Sirius. "Show them what it does."

James got his wand out, gave it a little tap and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"What?" asked Lily outraged.

"Wait," said James. "Okay, now take a look."

Jessica hurried to see what was happing with the parchment. It appeared to be map. She saw the words: _Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs. Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to Present: _THE MARAUDER'S MAP, blossom across the top, with green letters. It took her a few moments to realize of what.

"Is this Hogwarts?" asked Jessica amazed.

"Oh, yes it is, glad you noticed," replied Sirius with a smile on his face.

"And are those dots people?" asked Lily.

"Yes, every single soul in the castle it's on this map," said James brightly.

"Oh look," said Sirius, pointing at a dot that was not moving. Under the dot it showed Severus Snape. "Ha, thank goodness we won't be seeing his greasy disgusting hair for a while." All four boys started laughing. Lily and Jessica looked at each other with more of a worried look.

"Where did you guys get this map?" asked Lily. "I never heard of anything like this."

"That's because no one knows about this map," said James proudly. "We made it ourselves, third year."

"You guys are nuts," said Jessica. "There is no way they will catch us now. We just need to keep an eye on the map and make sure the coast is clear. Are we going through the Shrieking Shack?"

"No," said James. "We found six others passages way out of Hogwarts. All of them lead to Hogsmeade. And we are pretty sure no one knows about them, so they are secret. We are the only ones using it."

Sirius went on. "We will use this one." He pointed the passage on the map. "We used lots of time before. It takes us right into the cellar of Honeydukes."

"Okay then," said Jessica. "Shall we?"

"No, there is one more thing we need to show you," said James. He opened his trunk and got what looked like a cloak. "Since we don't want you two to get in trouble I will take this in case of emergency. We want you to use it if we get caught, then you get back and leave us behind."

"We have cloaks," said Jessica. "I don't understand how it will help us."

"This is not just a cloak." Remus stood up and walked towards James. "Show them what this baby does."

James covered Remus with the cloak and he disappeared in thin air. Jessica jumped and coved her mouth with surprise.

"Is this an invisibility cloak? They are really ware," said Lily extremely surprised.

"Yes it is", said Remus uncovering himself. "That's why we want you to have it tonight, if something goes wrong you cover yourselves and come back to the castle."

They left the common room looking at the map every few steps. They got in front of a one-eyed old crone's hump statue. James spoke the word _Dissendium_ and tapped the stone witch. The statue opened just enough so one person could get in at the time. Sirius laughed silently while Peter struggled to get past, the opening was wide enough for a fairly thin person, and Peter was rather chubby.

Inside looked like a giant rabbit tunnel. As they went, the passage twisted and turned many times. After a while the passage started to rise, then they got to steps. It never ended, they were climbing up the stairs forever.

"Two hundred and fifty eight steps," said Remus. "I counted myself. Watch you head."

Jessica looked up and saw a trapdoor. They opened it and climbed out into to cellar of Honeydukes. It was dark and empty. Apparently closed already, it made it easy for them to go out unseen.

"Shall we go for a round of butterbeer at Three Broomsticks?" said Remus joyfully.

The place wasn't as full as Jessica and Lily were used to. The only time they've been there was with hundreds other students.

They were having lots of fun. Talking and laughing all night. Remus often would say this was the best birthday ever.

"Lily and I have something to announce" said James. Lily turned pink instantly. "We are unofficially engaged. That means, we already know we will get married. Possibly right after we leave Hogwarts. It's unofficial because she does not have a ring. And we want to keep it a secret until we actually graduate."

"Oh my gosh, Lily," Jessica hugged her. "Congratulations, I am so happy for you."

"Thanks Jess. That's why I needed you here today," said Lily wiping a couple of tears.

Everybody took turns hugging and congratulating. Then Sirius raised his cup into the air and said.

"To true love. May the two of you live happily ever after." And they toasted in his words.

After that, four weird men came in, and just by looking at them Jessica felt the chills.

"Sirius, do you know those guys?" she asked.

"I know them alright," he said casting the men a sideway look. "That's Antonin Dolohov, on the far left, then Mulciber, Nott and Rosier. I am not sure their first names, but you see the tallest one?" Jessica nodded. "He is Evan Rosier father."

"I got chills when they came in," said Jessica, still trying to understand the uneasy feeling inside her. Everybody on the table was quiet listening to Jessica and Sirius conversation.

"That's because there are rumors about them," whispered Peter.

"What rumors?" asked Lily.

"Word on the street is that they are Death Eaters," said Remus, Lily gasped.

"So do you think is true? Is this Lord Voldemort real? I heard of him," said Lily, speaking very quickly, like she always did when she was nervous. "He used to work at Borgin and Burke's on Knockturn Alley after he left Hogwarts. He suddenly left his job and disappeared for nearly ten years. He came back and formed the so called "Death Eaters". It seems to me like a tale, it can't be true."

"Is true alright," said Sirius gloomily. He held Jessica's hand tighter. "And believe me I am a Black, I know. My mom doesn't speak of nothing else. Horrible things are happing already, and it will just get worse. They are looking for more followers. I heard they are really interested on Hogwarts students." Sirius paused showing great concern, and choosing his words carefully. "He wants to purify the wizardry world, basically keep it to the only worthy to his eyes, purebloods that is."

"That's awful. And who is fighting them?" asked Jessica, feeling a bit mortified.

"The Ministry is," said Remus. "They are hiring lots of Aurous to catch them. But people are dying and there are not a lot of people out there that wants the job."

"There are rumors of a Order of the Phoenix," said James, everybody drew closer to hear him whispering. "It's a group of people that thinks the Ministry is not doing enough, they think they can do more. We all know the founder too. It's Dumbledore. I asked him about it once, thought of joining it after I graduate, but Dumbledore wouldn't tell me anything. Said it wasn't right, because it could look bad for him, recruiting students and all. He told me to ask again after a leave Hogwarts."

"Surely a great wizard like Dumbledore can stop Voldemort," Lily mumbled.

"Please don't say his name" squeaked Peter, but everybody ignored him.

"I are not sure…" started James but an owls came flying through the door and caught everybody's attention.

The bartender got the letter and said quietly _Sonorus. _His voice became very loud, everybody present could hear him quite clearly as he read the piece of parchment. _"_Note to all. I am coming down for a drink. If you are not suppose to be there leave now. Thank you. Albus Dumbledore." _Quietus_, he said then he went on, like nothing happened.

They all stared at each other and without a word they stood up, left money on the table and ran to the door. Jessica looked back and saw those four men leaving as well.

"Put the cloak on and use the same passage way we came to get back," said Sirius. "It's better if we split."

"Here take the map as well," said James.

"Okay, I love you James," Lily said sweetly.

"I love you too Lily". They kissed and so did Sirius and Jessica.

They covered themselves with the cloak and walked toward Honeydukes. Jessica looked

back again and saw that the boys were running down the street. Jessica and Lily got back to Hogwarts faster than they thought possible. They were panting once they got out of the witch statue.

"Lily… since we are… under the invisibility cloak… I thought it would be a good idea… to go see Severus," Jessica whispered taking long deep breaths.

"What for?" Lily asked surprised.

"Well, maybe he is already awake," Jessica wondered aloud.

"Don't be silly, he will be out for a few days. You know that," said Lily, who was breathing just fine by now. "And even if he was awake, you would be the last person he will want to see."

"We are under the cloak, aren't we?" Jessica reminded her. "Oh, please Lily. I couldn't do it alone."

"Oh Jess," Lily struggled. "Okay, I'll go. But it has to be fast."

They walked quickly through the empty dark corridors. Being really careful not to make loud sounds as they went. The hospital wing was completely empty except for one bed in the very end.

Seeing Severus laying there was not easy. Strangely enough Severus looked normal, he looked peaceful. Both, Jessica and Lily stared at him for a moment.

"He doesn't even look hurt," Jessica broke the silence. "He looks asleep."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Lily said quietly.

"I can't believe I did this." Jessica was feeling devastated, her heart was tight, full of guilty. And she thought she deserved to be feeling pain, because she thought what she did was unforgivable. "He is my friend," she finally muttered.

"A little correction," Lily added. "He was your friend."

Those words hurt a lot, adding a bit more pain to her heart. The feeling of turning back time struck her hard, she wanted to take it all back, ashamed of her own actions. A small tear came down Jessica's cheek and she quickly wiped it away.

"Listen Jess," Lily said gently putting her arm around her. "We need to go back, the boys won't like if they found out we were here"

They headed back to the common room, and for their surprise the boys were back and waiting for them. Once Jessica and Lily were sure no one else was around, they took the invisibility cloak out.

"Thank goodness you are alright." James rushed towards them and got hold of Lily's hand and gave it a kiss.

Lily and James just stood there, not saying a word, staring at each others eyes. Jessica never seen that before, they looked truly in love. It felt like their silence spoke a thousand words, they didn't need to say a word to each other because they eye screamed love to everybody to see. Jessica realized Sirius was coming towards her too. He gave her a warm kiss and held her tightly. Jessica missed being close to him, they were so preoccupied with school work, Quidditch practice and their research on the wolfbane, that they didn't have anytime to actually act like a couple.

"So why did you take so long?" asked Sirius.

"We took a little detour," Jessica said, moving her attention from Lily and James to Sirius. "Couldn't resist, there is so much to do when you are invisible."

"I understand, I can't resist it either," he smiled. Like he was saying, been there done that. "I was thinking we could spend some alone time tonight."

"I would like that a lot. But I can't have a late night," Jessica said hating herself, because she wanted to be with him. "It's already late as is. Our final is tomorrow. I need a good night sleep."

"Okay," he said willingly. "How about you come sleep in our dorm tonight? I can hold you all night, as whisper in your ear, from time to time to let you know you are great, and that you will do great tomorrow."

"Now that sounds like something I can do," she said with a smile. I will get changed and I meet you there."

It was exactly what she needed. She missed being close to Sirius. Every time he held her she felt safe, like anything bad could happen to her, no harm could come. I was the best safe feeling ever.


	7. Chapter 7

Next morning James made sure Jessica was awake before he left the room. Waking up on Sirius arms gave Jessica a great feeling, like she could get used to it, she rested her head on his chest for a few minutes before waking him up, enjoying the moment, feeling his warmth as he tenderly held her.

Jessica met the rest of the team on the Great Hall for breakfast. Gryffindor table was in excellent mood, they were talking and laughing loudly. James was confident to the extreme but Jessica hardly ate anything, she was super nervous.

It was a struggle to try to get her Quidditch robes on, because she was shaking more than normal. Jessica was not the only one with her nerves showing, all her teammates were acting a bit out of the ordinary. Before the match James gave them a really nice speech.

"This won't be an easy game," he said as he paced from side to side. "It's my last match I will ever play as a Gryffindor, and Jessica's as well. And that's why I know all of you will give the best performance you possibly can. I would love to win that cup and close my story here with a golden key. Slytherin has a small advantage on top of us. They haven't lost a game and we did. So to win this match we will need to be ahead by at least two hundred points before I can catch the snitch as you all know.

"Now I've seen worse and it's definitely doable, of course I will need an extra help from your chasers, but since we have the greatest, we won't have a problem. Now lets go out there and play the best we can. And let me add, if you play like you played in our last practice, Slytherin won't have a chance."

Jessica finally felt confident after that, James always knew the right thing to say. It was an incredible sensation to fly into a full field. She heard the loud roar from the students below. It felt great, and Jessica was determined to do her best and get that cup as James said.

Game started, Slytherin got hold of the quaffle first, not before long Gryffindor had the quaffle and the lead. They scored ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty points. Slytherin team started to get nervous and play a little dirty, like they always did. Jessica did not want to get stressed and tried to keep it down and out of their way, and her teammates were doing the same.

Both teams concentrated on attacking, and scoring as much goals as they could. Gryffindor did get the advantaged of scoring two penalties, due to the brutality against them. Before Jessica could think, she saw Evans Rosier flying on her direction in full speed, he was a beater. Suddenly she realized she was in trouble, a bludger hit her on the ribs. She fell off her broom, hitting the floor hard.

"This one is for Severus," she heard Evans saying as he flew away.

"Jessica, Jessica are you alright?" her teammates called for her.

"Are you hurt?" they went on.

"No," she replied. "I actually don't feel pain. I think I am alright." She saw James trying to make his way through all the Gryffindors around her.

"Jessica, are you alright?" he asked urgently.

"Yes, I think I am," she answered.

"I don't want to pressure you, but can you still play?" he said panicking.

"Yes, could you help me up, please?" James held her hand and helped her up, she cried with pain. She felt a burning sensation around her ribs. It was hard standing up but she did her best, got her broomstick and called the team.

"Let's go, I am ready."

"Are you sure? You look like you are in pain," said James worried.

"I can do this, trust me," she said with conviction.

"Okay, I need thirty more points, after that I can catch the snitch," he said smiling. "I've seen it at least hundred times already, it's so hard not chasing it. Can you do it?"

"I will. Ready?" Both of them took off, their teammates were already waiting above.

"Keep the beaters away from Jessica," James gave orders to all the team.

She was in serious pain, she could feel cold sweat sliding down her face. But she focused in what she needed to do and she did it beautifully. One goal, then another and another one. The Gryffindors were cheering like they never did before. Jessica hoped James would catch the snitch soon. She was hurting so bad.

She turned to all directions looking for him, then she heard a whistle, the game was over. Some one had gotten the snitch, but whom? She froze inside. She couldn't find James. But she did find Lily and Sirius in the middle of the crowd bellow. They were screaming jumping up and down, Sirius pointing where James was.

He was on the teacher's box, holding the golden snitch high on the air. Jessica was relieved. She flew back down, her foot touched the ground, her ribs hurting more than ever. She saw Lily and Sirius running towards her, but she collapsed before they could get to her.

Jessica woke up couple of hours later at the hospital wing, feeling a bit dizzy. Took her a few moments to realize she where she was, she smiled sweetly once she saw Sirius sitting next to her to the right.

"Hello beautiful," he said giving her a kiss on her forehead. "You played awesome today, I told you'd be great. You could go pro, you know?"

"Thanks, what happened to me?" she asked trying sit up, but failed because of the pain she felt on her side.

"You had two fractured ribs," he said, helping her to sit up, carefully holding he under her arms till she was comfortable. "But you are all fixed already, you just need some rest. No one believed you scored three perfect goals with two fractured ribs. I think you will go down in history for that. How bad did it hurt?"

"Bad, really bad," she said laughing. "But I was not about to let those stupid Slytherins get the cup, no I wasn't. How long do I have to stay here?"

"Till tomorrow morning. Remus asked me to congratulate you, he had to go, it's his special night tonight. James and Lily wanted to stay here but I told them to go enjoy the celebration party, James is so excited. I haven't seen him like this in ages."

"You should be at the party too," she said feeling a bit bad Sirius was missing a great party. "I am alright."

"I am not leaving you down here alone," he pointed to her left and she saw Severus, lying three beds down. "If he wakes up, I want to be here, just in case."

"Sirius, he is unconscious," she rolled her eyes. "He won't give me any problems."

"Well, I better stay anyway. Now if you don't mind it's late and I am tired. So slide over so I can lay down." He laid by her, and she started laughing. "What?"

"There are at least ten other empty beds here, you know?" she joked shaking with laughter. "You staying has nothing to do with Severus, you just can't stay away, can you?"

"Yes, you are right, you found my mortal weakness," he said rolling his eyes. "I thought you were faster. The whole school knew before you did." And he kissed her.

Sirius was not kidding when he said he was tired, in less then half a hour he was fast asleep. Since Jessica slept a lot during the day she was not sleepy at all. She looked down where Severus was lying down. She wanted to see him closely, but could she walk?

Being really careful not to wake Sirius up, she got out of bed. Her ribs did not hurt as bad, it felt like her muscles were sore but she could walk. Severus looked the same as he did last night, when Lily and her came to see him. He had not moved, his expression had not changed, he was still the same. She sat on the bed by him, bended down and whispered "I am so sorry" to his ears. His face felt cold, she couldn't even tell if he was alive.

"Ms. Thompson step away from him right now." Jessica jumped and turned around. It was Madam Pomfrey.

"I just wanted to see how he was doing. Can he hear us?" asked Jessica.

"No he can't," said Pomfrey checking Severus. "But he is improving, I expect he will wake up soon, probably tomorrow."

"I wanted him to know I am very sorry," said Jessica.

"Well, I hope you will be gone before he wakes up," she said once she was sure Severus was still the same. "It won't do him any good if you are here." She looked at her watch. "And you are supposed to be in bed resting and sleeping."

"But I just woke up. I can't possibly go to sleep now," she protested.

"But you need the rest anyway, so I will give you something to sleep. I will be right back."

She left. Jessica laid back down.

"You got to be kidding me Ms Thompson." She looked horrified when she saw Sirius asleep next to Jessica. "Move to the other bed, right now."

Jessica did as she was told, not even questioning. "Will you tell him I am sorry?"

"Who Mr. Snape?"

"Yes, since I can't be here, will you tell him I came to see him and that I am sorry?" Jessica insisted.

"I don't know what good that will do," she said with a sneer. "But I can think about it."

"Thanks," said Jessica.

"I said I will think about it. I didn't say I will do it." She gave Jessica the drink, she drank it and before long she was asleep.

Next morning during breakfast Jessica told her friends everything about what happened with Madam Pomfrey and her last night."… you should've seen the horror on face when she saw Sirius." They exploded with laughter. Sirius had turned bright red as he laughed.

"I am not surprised she was horrified. I mean, she does not even know what being close to someone means. Do you think she ever dated?" James said and the boys laughed even harder.

"James that's not funny," said Lily, slapping the back of his head.

"Not funny but true," said Sirius. It seemed like they would never stop laughing. "I will see you later. I will check on Remus."

"Me too," said James. "Coming with us Peter?

"Yes, sure."

"Be careful," said Lily. "We will be at the library researching the wolfbane."

And so they did till lunch. But Sirius and James were not back yet. Peter was at lunch and told them not to worry, he said they were just having boy time and would be back later. Lily and Jessica actually enjoyed the time apart. Lily told Jessica all the details from the engagement, Jessica told Lily her weird conversation with professor Slughorn. Then they reached a topic both wanted to talk about, but never dared to say anything, but Jessica had something in her mind and she had to voice it out.

"What do you think of this Lord Voldemort?" asked Jessica.

"You know Jess, a lot of people don't call him by the name," said Lily with concern.

"That's just because they fear him, and I don't, do you?"

"No, I am not afraid of him," Lily tucked her hair behind her ears, she did that when she was nervous.

"What? What's wrong Lily?" Jessica worried.

"Oh, nothing, it's just…" She paused and stared blankly for a few seconds. "I hear that he gets rid of everyone who steps on his way, and so far, no one survived. I know for a fact that all of us will fight him after we leave school. My stomach gives a back flip just with the thought that some of us won't make it till the end."

There was a long silence. Lily was right, Jessica never gave it a whole lot of thought, but the things happening around the wizardry world were just horrible, deaths after deaths being reported every single day.

"Lily, are you afraid of death?" Jessica finally asked.

"No, I don't fear death for myself," she said showing the topic made her uncomfortable. "I just don't know if I would survive if I lost James or you in the progress."

"I don't know what I would do without you either," Jessica realized for the first time this was more serious than she thought. " I can't even imagine what I would do if something happened to Sirius."

"Let's promise we will stay together," Lily said sounding desperate. "United, no matter what. Until the end. Doesn't matter how far the end is."

"I promise," she said fearful.

"Me too Jess, best friends till the end," she gave Jessica a nervous smile and they hugged and cried a little.

They went down for dinner and James and Sirius were not back yet, and now Peter was gone too. Since they did not have anything to do, they decided to make the boys a surprise. They cut a bunch of paper hearts wrote love notes on it and spread it all over their beds. When they were done it was time to go to bed, it was late already.

"Lily, are you still awake?" asked Jessica after laying awake for a few minutes.

"Yes," she said quietly.

"What do you think they are doing?" she asked again. "They can't possibly be with Remus tonight."

"Jess, I am sure we don't want to know," Lily joked.

"True," Jessica agreed. "Good night Lily."

"Good night Jess."

The following week past by really fast. Jessica was getting in a routine, and she found that really annoying. The usually did the same thing everyday, meals, classes, homework and research. At night they would hang out together at the common room till late, after that they would go to sleep. On Thursday night while they were at the common room Jessica finally decided she had enough.

"Do you want to go for a walk with me?" she whispered on Sirius ears.

"Excuse us for a second." Sirius stood up and pulled Jessica aside so they could talk. "What do you mean go for a walk?"

"You know get out of here a little, we never spend time alone anymore. We do the same things everyday," she said sounding bored. "It's getting really annoying. I want to get out of the castle for a little while."

"Jessica, I won't put you in any situation that would get you into trouble," said Sirius delicately. "You will get detention or worse, who knows what McGonagall will do if she catches you breaking rules."

"Well, I rather get detention everyday than keep doing this little routine we do," she insisted. "You are not the person I started dating. Sirius you can't just hold back now. You showed me fun, and it's too late to take it back. Let's spice up the night."

"Wait here." He ran up the stairs and came back with the invisibility cloak and the map. He showed it to James from a distance. "We will be right back," he said while James was nodding.

"You guys don't need to wait for us," said Jessica and they went out the door.

They got out of the castle and headed to the lake. It was a nice night outside, just the right temperature. The sky was perfectly clear and the stars were shinning bright, illuminating the grounds bellow.

"Uh, it's nice out here," said Jessica, breathing in the fresh air deeply. They sat down really close to the water, Jessica was looking up to the star.

"Yeah it's a perfect night," he agreed dreamingly. Jessica looked at him and as always he was looking at her and not at the stars.

They kissed for a very long time. Jessica loved how Sirius always held her close and caressed back in a sweet embrace while they kissed, she cherished those moments above all others. Sirius stopped kissing her and was holding her face with both hand, they looked at each other eyes for a moment.

"So, what made you want to get way tonight?" He finally asked.

"Well, I already told you, I am tired of the same old thing all the time. You guys were different, you changed your ways," she laughed.

"We did. But it was for you guys," said Sirius, stroking her hair. "We had to. You and Lily follow the rules and we don't."

"Did you even consider the reason why we like you it's because you're such a rule breaking gang?"

"No," he said with a pause. "But we did think you hated us for being like that."

"Me and Lily need you and James, and verse and versa," Jessica explained. "We need your fun, you need our discipline. We surely can find a balance between the two of them."

"I had no idea you felt this way," he said getting closer, ready to kiss her again. "I thought our routine was what you wanted, what you were used to."

"You didn't know because we never have time to talk anymore. Plus my life sucked before you, and know it's just perfect." She leaned to kiss him, then she laid on the grass and he did the same.

They talked and laughed till late. Sirius would point to the stars and make up constellations names, they were very funny and most of the time very clever. On their way back, they got under the invisibility cloak just in case. At the common room they kissed good night and went to their dormitories.


	8. Chapter 8

Next day Jessica felt refreshed, Sirius was acting more like a boyfriend all morning, normally he would just hang around with Jessica and hold hands, today however, he was giving her more attention, his arm was around Jessica's waist everywhere they went. Jessica was rather enjoying the change, she decided she would get away with Sirius more often, it made them a lot closer. After lunch Jessica had Transfiguration but she realized she did not had the book with her.

"That's weird I was sure I had it here," she said, looking through her bag a third time. "I will go get it."

"I will go with you," said Sirius.

"No, it's okay, I will run really fast. Go ahead and get to class, let Professor McGonagall know I will be late and save me a seat by you."

"Are you sure?" asked Sirius.

"Yes, go or you will be late too," she said.

She went back to her room and looked for the book everywhere and didn't find it. "I probably dropped it some where," she thought. "Accio Transfiguration book," she summoned it and waited, nothing happened. She got seriously annoyed and decided to go to class without her book.

The corridors were empty, apparently everybody was in class already. She walked by a classroom and she heard a soft voice. "Please, help me… Can someone hear me? I need help."

She didn't even think twice, she opened the door and the classroom looked empty, she went in, looked around. But there was no one inside.

"Hello," she said. "Who is there? Do you need help?"

Jessica heard the door closing behind her. She turned around, feeling chills inside her and she saw him, Severus standing between her and the door. 

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Your precious boyfriend wouldn't leave you out of his sight so I had to do something about it," Severus smiled nastily. He got a book from under his cloak, it was her Transfiguration book.

Jessica took a few steps back, Severus had a triumphant look on his face, his eyes burning with anger. She went for her wand. But it wasn't in her pocket anymore. Severus smiled even wider and showed her the wand. He had it too.

"I still remember exactly were you put your wand," he said slowly. "You should consider changing places every once in a while."

"Severus, I don't know what you want, but I am really so…"

"Sorry," he completed her sentence. "I know."

"You do?" she asked, at this point trying to find a way to get out of the classroom, Jessica was looking for a second door, or a ghost.

"Yes, Madam Pomfrey told me," he said coldly.

"She did?" she asked casually, taking couple steps to the side giving her a clear shot to the door.

"Yes," he said also taking two steps to the side blocking the door again. "Now we can settle things, just the two of us."

"How do you plan on doing this?" she said irritably. "I don't have a wand. It's not fair,"

"I know it's not fair", he said crisply. "But then again, since when is life fair?" He raised his wand.

"Severus, please don't do this," she said softly, his eyes were glittering wickedly. "For our friendship."

"You should've thought about that before you attacked me." He opened his mouth to speak again, Jessica was scared, she did not know what was coming her way, she couldn't protect herself, she closed her eye, waiting. The door busted open and Jessica heard three different voices and two incantations. "Expelliarmus" she recognized the voice, it was Lily and "Levicorpus" was definitely Sirius and, she opened her eyes, James.

Jessica felt relieved, she got her wand and book that were on the floor and gave Sirius a hug. Severus was upside down by the ankle in mid air, his wand in the other side of the room.

"How dare you?" said Lily furiously.

"For goodness sake Snivellus, you are a coward," said Sirius, holding Jessica with one arm and the other raised pointing at the upside down Severus.

"Don't call me a coward Black," Severus barked.

"Oh, forgive me, what do you call this then?" growled Sirius. "Attacking someone that does not have a wand? What kind of person does that? Apparently you do. You are lucky we have girls here with us, because if it was only you and me you would be finished."

"Here they are Headmaster." It was Remus with Dumbledore.

"Please put Severus down," Dumbledore said, and they carefully let Severus down, Sirius looked a bit disappointed, he did not look like he was done with Severus yet. Severus left the room without another word. "Good job Sirius," Dumbledore then added. "I see you got here on time, good then, no harm done. Go back to your classrooms."

The five friends did as they were told, walking as fast as they could to the McGonagall classroom. James and Sirius swearing loudly the whole way there.

"How did you know?" Jessica asked Sirius, before they went in the classroom.

"Well Dumbledore warned me," Sirius said. "He was concerned that Snape would try something like this. Told me to keep an eye on you. When I noticed you were taking too long I got the Marauder's Map and saw you alone with him. James and Lily came with me and I send Remus to get Dumbledore."

"Thanks Sirius," said Jessica fondly. "I feel really stupid. Falling in a trap like that."

"You are not stupid, he is a coward," he said kindly. "We need to get to class now. We can talk later."

Easter holiday was just around the corner. Jessica and Lily got Dumbledore's permission to go home on Easter weekend, since their first year. Both families had big celebrations at their grandparents home. They always left Saturday late afternoon and came back on Sunday night. This year was going to be no different, they would go as always, but these time Sirius was going with Jessica and James with Lily. Jessica and Sirius were talking about their Easter plans at the common room on their favorite spot by the fireplace.

"I don't know about this Jessica," he said feeling unsure. "I will probably make a fool of myself. I know nothing about muggles."

"You'll do fine." Jessica was really excited to show up with him at the party. "I told you before, we are having lunch with the Evans on Sunday, and we will make sure to tell you everything there is to know, so neither you or James will make fool of yourselves."

"Would you have dinner with my family?" he asked vaguely.

"It's different Sirius, my family doesn't hate wizards," she said. "As a matter of fact they don't even know or will know you are one. Image what would happen to me if I tried to go to your place."

"What?" He sounded really mad. "What would my family do? Do you think they are savages?"

Jessica was confused for a second. Sirius hated his family, why was he so upset? She considered for a second.

"Sirius, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," she finally said.

"I know," he was still serious. "But you should've seen you face just now."

"What?" she asked still feeling confused.

"I am teasing you Jess," he said suddenly smiled.

"It's not funny Sirius." Both of them started laughing. "Wait. Did you just called me Jess?"

"I did," he said giving her tender kisses on her neck, but stopping suddenly. "Oh, is this a friend thing? Between you and Lily?"

"No, my family calls me that too, remember? And I guess after Sunday you will kind of be a bit part of my family too," she said without thinking. "I mean you if you want consider my parents family, you can." She quickly fixed

"Yeah, you right. I guess I could." He started to kiss her softly.

"Time to go to bed, Padfoot," she said after a while.

"Now that's a nickname between friends," he said holding her tighter making a statement that he had no plans to go to bed anytime soon.

"Uuuhh, you can call me by my nickname, but I can't?" she said jokingly. "Where did my fair boyfriend go?"

"He is right here." He jumped on top of her and started tickling her.

"Sirius, stop. You know I don't like that," she said laughing so hard it was hard to breathe.

"Stop laughing if you don't like it," he said tickling her harder.

"I can't if you don't stop tickling me," said Jessica while trying to push him away, falling miserably. But she was smarter than he thought, she held his neck kissed him on the lips, making him stop really fast. "Sirius, It's late. We should…"

"Go to bed, I know," said Sirius scrambling to his feet. He helped her up and walked her to her dormitory door.

"Good night, Jess." He kissed her again and smiled.

"Good night," she said. Sirius turned to leave. "What does it mean anyway?

"What?" he said looking at her.

"Padfoot? What does it mean?" she asked.

"Oh, it's an inside joke. You don't want to know," he quickly said, and left before Jessica could ask more.

The day before Easter they walked all together towards Hogsmeade. Normally Dumbledore would set up a portkey for them to leave, but since this year they were allowed to legally apparate they decided it would be easier.

"I think this is enough," said James. They're trying to get away from Hogwarts so the could disapparate.

"I guess I see you two tomorrow?" said Jessica giving Lily a hug.

"Yes, I'll see you, Jess."

"Shall we do it all together?" said Sirius , he was holding hands with Jessica. "In the count of three. One, two, three"

In a split of second everything went black, Jessica was not used to traveling like that, the sensation was of someone forcing her through an invisible tube and using it as a highway to her house, it was hard to breathe but before long she found herself on her parents living room.

"Hi, it's so good to see you." Mrs. Thompson was waiting by the couch, she hurried to hung Jessica and Sirius. "Honey, Willy, they are here. Jessica and Sirius arrived,"

Jessica heard running footsteps coming down the stairs and she knew exactly who was coming.

"Willy!!!" she said as his beaming face appeared, she was really glad to see him.

"Hi, Jess," he jumped on her neck, making her lose balance a bit, but Sirius held her tighter for extra support. "I missed you so bad."

"I did too," she said giving him an extra squeeze. "Do you remember Sirius?"

"Sure I do. Do you want to play wizard chess with me?" said Willy giving Sirius a firm hand shake.

"Willy he just got here, give him a break," said Mr. Thompson .

"I will play later," said Sirius .

"Let me take you to your room. I will have dinner ready in about half an hour." Sirius followed Mrs. Thompson upstairs. And Jessica went to put her stuff in her own room.

After dinner Sirius played a few games of wizard chess with Willy. Jessica talked with her parents and told them everything she did for fun so far. Her parents were really pleased to hear something different. Usually the only thing she ever talked about, was the papers she wrote and the tests she took.

"You haven't said anything about your friend Severus dear," her mom pointed out.

"We, uh, we are not in good terms at the moment mom," she said quietly.

"Oh, I hope you two work things out," said Mrs. Thompson. Jessica looked at Sirius, he was really interested in their conversation all of a sudden. "What happened?"

"Let's say Severus and Sirius don't get along," she said the first thing that came to mind "We just had a disagreement. That's all." Sirius left a small laugh out.

"Do you want to talk about it?" her dad asked.

"Not really dad, I am sure we will work things out soon." Sirius left a very loud laugh this time. Jessica gave him "_don't do this_" look and he went back to his game. "Anyway it's late I am going to bed."

"We all are. It's a long day tomorrow," said Mrs. Thompson. "Let's go Willy."

Jessica was already laying on her bed when someone knocked her door.

"Come in," she said and was not surprised to see Sirius coming in.

"I need to talk," he whispered. "Do you think your parents will mind?"

"Of course not, come in." She sat on bed, Sirius closed the door behind him very quietly and sat by her.

"Your family is very nice," he said with an softy voice. "That's why you are nice."

"Thanks," she said putting her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder. "That is very sweet Sirius."

"Don't you see where I am going with this do you?" he sighed.

Jessica felt confused. Did she miss something? "No, I am sorry."

"Look at my family," said Sirius gloomily.

"What about them?" she asked, stroking his hair, she felt something was bothering him.

"They are not nice Jess," he sighed again. "Do you know what I heard all summer? How Voldemort is the best thing that happened to the wizardry world. Do you know what they call him? The great Dark Lord. Do you know who else calls him that? Death Eaters Jess, death eaters. My family is in favor of everything we hate, everything all the good people I know hates."

Jessica did not know what to say. She never truly understood what went on inside Sirius house, at that moment she wished she could take all his pain and suffering away, but was powerless to do so.

"You still don't see where am I going, uh?" he continued

"I am sorry, Sirius I don't," she said.

He paused, she could tell he was carefully putting words together. "I am afraid I will turn into them. I am scared of the blood that runs in my veins. The Black's blood, dark blood."

Jessica was stunned. Did he really mean that? She was could not believe it. She went from her cozy position to a very stern one.

"Is that what you think Sirius?" she asked. "That you will turn to the dark side, just because of your family?" 

"I do," he said ruefully. "I fear it everyday."

Jessica sat in front of him, and wrapped her legs around his waist, he was miserably looking down. She held his face up and looked him in right in the eye.

"I can tell you right now," she said with conviction. "There is not even one bone inside of you that is bad Sirius. You won't turn to the dark side. You are different from them. You are better."

"How do you know that?"

"I see it in your eye," she said looking even deeper, she felt the goodness of his soul. "You are good Sirius, you are."

"Promise you won't let me forget that?" he asked showing a little bit of relief.

"I promise," she said, kissing his face.

"Will you tell me that from time to time for the rest of my life?" he asked again, this time putting his arms around her, drawing her closer.

"I will if you want me to," said Jessica kissing him.

"Thanks Jess," he said in between kisses. "I really needed to talk. Will you hold me for a while?"

"Sure." Jessica allowed him to lay down by her, this time around he was the one resting his head on her chest, she wrapped her arm around him and stroke his hair and back for a long time. When Sirius got really sleepy he went to his own bed.


	9. Chapter 9

The Evans got to the Thompson's house a bit earlier than planned. Lily told Jessica that her mom wanted to help with lunch; she said it wasn't fair for Lydia to deal with lunch all by herself.

"Where is Petunia Lily?" asked Jessica.

"She found something else to do, of course," she said rolling her eyes. "She was horrified when mom told her James was coming."

"I really don't know how she does it," said James frustrated. "She totally ignored me. I really felt like hexing her, but Lily here, made sure to keep a close watch on me."

"Of course I did. What did you expect? If you hex her every five minutes she will hate magic more than she does now." She turned to Jessica. "Anyway, she is engaged too. A guy named Vernon. She went to his place for lunch and she is coming to my grandparents dinner later."

During lunch they talked about some things Sirius and James needed to know. What to talk about, what not to say, who is good to talk to, who they were suppose to ignore beyond all means. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Evans gave them a lecture on sports with short description for each.

"I am sure you will do fine boys," said Mrs. Thompson while she cleared the plates, making room for dessert.

"I sure hope so," said James, he put his arms around Lily. "They will be my family too, for the rest of my life, I need to make a good impression."

"Oh my goodness, are you two…" Mr. Thompson started.

"Engaged to be, yes," said Lily blushing a bit.

"That's wonderful. Congratulations." Mrs. Thompson went to give Lily a hug. Mr. Thompson in the other hand had his eye fixed on Jessica and Sirius. Lydia noticed her husband was really tense, and tried to changed subjects. "Honey, will you help me with dessert?"

"Yes sure," he stood up with his eyes still fixed on Jessica and Sirius. Jessica was starting to feel really uncomfortable, Sirius was squeezing Jessica's hand under the table, showing he was very uncomfortable as well. Sirius relaxed his hand as Mr. Thompson turned around to help his wife. Jessica felt relief, and gave Sirius a gentle kiss on the lips, smiling. Suddenly Mr. Thompson turned around, cutting their tender moment short.

"Are you two..." Mr. Thompson started

"NO," chorused Jessica and Sirius.

"Okay then, I was just wondering," he said airily and left to the kitchen.

After lunch they talked a bit more. Trying to make Sirius and James relax, concentrating on the fun there were going to have. And it worked really well. The Evans left couple of hours later. Giving them plenty of time to get ready. Sirius got dressed really fast and went over to Jessica room. She, in the other hand, had not even decided what clothes to put on.

"Thank goodness you are here," she said, looking herself in the mirror. "What do you of my outfit?"

"It's good," said Sirius.

"No it's not," she disagreed. "I don't think this shirt matches my shoes." She quickly got her shirt off.

"Gosh, Jess. Don't do that. Give me a warning." She looked at him, he had his back turned to her, covering his eyes.

"What?" she asked feeling confused.

"You just took your shirt out," he added. "Didn't even warn me."

"Sirius, I have an undershirt on," she said, laughing hysterically.

"Oh, sorry," he said sounding embarrassed. He turned around, and she already had another shirt on. "I like that one better," he said quietly.

"Me too," she gave him a big hug, still laughing a little bit. "You are very sweet, did you know that? There are not many guys out there that would turn around if his girlfriend took her top off."

"I know," he said coolly. "I normally wouldn't turn around myself. But with you is different, you are special to me, I don't want to mess up in anyway, want everything to be perfect." He gave her a small kiss. "So what do you think?"

"About what?" she said not understanding what he was talking about.

"My muggle clothes," said Sirius. Jessica totally forgot about that. Sirius was wearing jeans and a polo t-shirt.

"Oh right, I forgot," she examined him from head to toe. "You look really nice. But I like as a wizard better."

"Me too," both laughed. "Do you realize what day is today?"

"Easter?" she suggested vaguely.

"No, it's the 14th," he said slowly. "Today we are officially dating for two months. The best two months of my life."

"Mine too." They kissed, but this time for a very long time. It felt like the first, she felt like she did when he kissed her for the first time. Jessica did not want let go.

"Okay, break it off you two." It was Jessica's dad at the door. "Time to go," he added harshly.

She felt a bit frustrated with her dad attitude but didn't say anything. Sirius just nodded and walked out of the room as her dad waited at the doorway. Jessica grabbed her purse and was going down the stairs when someone rang the door bell. Mr. Thompson hurried to get, looking strangely pleased, he opened the door. Jessica froze once she saw who was standing outside.

"Brian!!! So good to see you son, you are just in time. Come in." Mr. Thompson said with an enthusiastic tone.

"Hi Jessica, I hope you don't mind," Brian said. "My parents are out of town and your dad invited me to go with you."

Jessica could not believe what she was hearing. She stared at her mom, and she looked just as surprised as Jessica.

"Can I talk with you alone for a second dad?" said Jessica going to the living room, her dad followed. Before she closed the door she heard Brian asking. "Sirius, isn't it? So, are you guys together?"

"Dad, why did you call him?" she thundered.

"Well I knew he was alone, and I didn't want him to be alone," he said calmly. "Besides, your grandparents love Brian, they will be so happy to see him."

"And I am sure they will be happy to see Sirius too," she snarled.

"I am sure they will," her dad said trying to keep it cool. "But Brian, is Brian, you know?"

"No I don't," she said in a cold tone. "When did you call him?"

"Just an hour ago," he said casually.

"After Lily and James told you they were engaged," she said ironically.

"Yes, but this has nothing to do with them," said Mr. Thompson who started acting nervous.

"Don't lie dad.," she demanded.

"Okay, maybe a little bit," he confessed. "I am afraid that you will do the same, rush to an engagement. You are so young, have a brilliant career in front of you. I just want you to remember that you do have options."

"Options???" she was screaming now. "I don't need options. Even if I did, Brian would be the last on my list. Dad, I love Sirius, Is that what you needed to hear? Do you understand me ?" her dad didn't say anything. "I LOVE HIM!!!" roared Jessica.

She stormed out of the room, when she opened the door she saw Sirius and Brian standing there, frozen, looking at her. She felt really stupid. They heard everything. Her mom and Willy were at the stairs frozen too.

"Maybe this is not a good idea," said Brian. "I think I will go home"

"Don't be stupid Brian," snapped Jessica. "You can go with us. That's the only thing I agree with my dad. I am not letting you spend Easter Sunday alone."

"I will go get my car then," he said awkwardly. "We won't all fit in one."

"Jessica and Sirius, you can go with him," said Mr. Thompson still in a bit of a shock, his face very pale.

"No, we can't," said Jessica firmly.

"Willy you go him.." Mr. Thompson started.

"No," said Willy quickly."Honey, you will have to go with him," her mom said and Mr. Thompson followed Brian out, without saying a word. Her mom walked by Jessica and gave kiss on the head. Lydia and Willy went out. Jessica was left alone with Sirius. She was looking at him, he was looking at her but he did not say anything.

The only thing Jessica had in her mind was "_now would be a good time for you to say something",_ but he stood there frozen. She felt really frustrated with his silence and went out, he followed her. She opened the car front door, before she went in, she saw Sirius standing close behind her. She waited a second.

"I love you too," he whispered to her ear. Jessica felt relieved. He loved her back, and for a few minutes she thought he wasn't going to say anything. Sirius waited until she got in the car and closed the door for her, then, he opened the back door and went in.

When they got to the grandparents house Jessica took Sirius straight to the kitchen, where she knew she would find her grandma.

"Hi grandma," she greeted her. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, darling," she said giving Jessica a really warm hug, she saw Sirius. "And who is this handsome young man?"

"This is Sirius grandma. He is my boyfriend," said Jessica proudly.

"Is he really? This is the first time you bring a boyfriend here since… Well, it doesn't matter. And are you a you-know-what?" She asked Sirius.

"You mean a wizard?" he whispered.

"Yes, of course," she said brightly.

"I am," he said nodding.

"This is great. I've been saving something for Jess, but I am sure she won't mind if you help me instead." She went over to the cabinet and got a jar out. "We can't get this pickle jar open."

"Oh, I can help you." Sirius got the jar. Jessica gave a discreet laugh. Sirius put his entire strength to open it. Jessica laughed again, this time everyone heard her.

"Use magic," she whispered. He smiled, and let go of the lid a second later the it unscrewed loosely.

"It's wonderful, thank you," she beamed. Grandpa came in. "Look dear, this is Sirius, Jessica new boyfriend. He is a you-know-what," she said sounding jolly.

"Really? I just saw Brian out there I thought… Never mind" her grandpa said sounding confused. "It's so nice to meet you. What's your last name again?"

"Black sir, Sirius Black."

"No need to call me sir son. Welcome to the family." He tapped Sirius shoulders. "Let's go to the living room and let the ladies talk, shall we?" Sirius left with him.

"He seems really nice," grandma said.

"He is, he is more than nice, he is just wonderful." Jessica loved talking with her grandma, she loved watching her while she cooked and baked, she was always in such a good mood. After a while Jessica thought it would be a good idea to check on Sirius, so she went to the living room.

Willy was sitting by himself on the couch. Jessica sat by him, she noticed Willy was laughing softly.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Good thing you got here, Jessica. You don't want to miss this." He had his eyes fixed on Sirius. "Since Sirius got here, Brian is trying to embarrass Sirius, right? So he goes on asking lots of questions, Sirius is going quite well, he answered every single one. Brian is trying to find a soft spot, no doubt about that."

"Do you think this is funny?" said Jessica horrified. "Poor Sirius, I will go help him."

"No," he held her arm. "I didn't get to the good part yet. Dad started getting pretty annoyed too, so I saw him winking at Sirius, like he was giving permission on something, every since, Brian being acting funny, doing some pretty stupid stuff. Sirius is playing with him. It's hilarious."

Jessica thought she could afford to watch that. And Willy was right, it was pretty funny. Sirius would make Brian's cup disappear and he would get really confused looking for it, then when he went to get another one, the drink in the cup would get dry all of a sudden. Later when they were sitting down for dinner, Brian's chair moved a few inches back and he fell on the floor. Jessica was actually enjoying seeing Brian make a total fool of himself.

Dinner was perfect, Sirius was in a really good mood and everything was going nice. They ate desserts and then they guys went for another round of drinks. Jessica was the only girl left in the living room, she noticed it, but she ignored it so she would not leave Sirius alone again.. Her cousin called her to the kitchen to talk with the rest of the women in the family

"Lets go Jess," her cousin insisted. "You surely don't want to be here talking with this lot."

"Go on, I can handle things here," her dad said. "Trust me."

She was about to say no when Sirius said. "It's okay, I will be fine." She left feeling a bit unsure.

It was getting late and she needed to go back to Hogwarts so all the girls went to the living room to start saying goodbyes. Jessica felt pretty proud in how good the night turned out. Although they had some bumps on the way, it was not bad at all. Everybody had a bit too much to drink, Brian was the worse one. They were almost leaving when Brian started talking loudly. Jessica looked at him, he was on top of a chair.

"Shall we make a toast before the night is over?" Brian said sounding really drunk.

Everybody almost instantly got drinks. Brian went on. "This is for the wonderful couple standing in front of me, seriously, aren't they perfect? Sirius and Jessica." Everybody cheered, but Jessica had a really bad feeling, he was not done yet. "It's a great feeling, isn't Sirius? Being with her, holding her hand?"

"It sure is," said Sirius raising his cup.

"I know," Brian said laughing. "I would hold on tight if I were you."

"Don't worry," Sirius said grinning at Jessica. "I am not letting she go anywhere."

"Isn't it beautiful?" Brian asked the family, who started to look puzzled at his actions. "Enjoy the happy feeling while you can. Before she crushes you like a bug…"

"Brian, that's enough," said Mr. Thompson. Her family looked outraged.

"No, I'm not done yet," Brian protested. "I remember when I was in your shoes Sirius, happy for having her by my side. Till she decided she needed to move on, to better and bigger things. And then she left me, with a broken heart and a wound so big that did not heal till today."

Sirius turned around ready to leave, ignoring him, Jessica followed.

"Sirius, I heard she saying that she loves you today." Sirius turned around again. "I bet is a recent thing, be careful, because she dumped me right after she told me the same thing." Brian went too far, everybody in the room was in shock, he laughed loudly and took a drink. Brian stopped, eye wide open, he did not seem to be breathing. He started turning red, Jessica realized he was choking, she looked at Sirius he had a triumphant look on his face. He cursed Brian

Brian started turning light purple, dark purple.

"Sirius, that's enough," said Jessica in a low voice.

He was blue, people were panicking.

"Enough Sirius," she muttered.

"Just a bit more Jess," he said with a grin.

Brian was dark blue now.

"ENOUGH," roared Mr. Thompson.

Sirius ignored him, then Jessica took action.

"Finite," she whispered.

Brian caught a big breathe then passed out.

The walk back to Hogwarts was very silent. Neither Jessica or Sirius spoke a word. They were at the entrance hall when Jessica couldn't stand the situation so she had to say something.

"Sirius, what's the matter?"

"I ask you the same question," he said coldly.

"Nothing is wrong with me," she said. " I am fine."

"I thought you were mad because I gave that muggle a lesson," he said sounding bitter.

"I am not mad at you Sirius," she said kindly. "And he deserved it, I would've curse him myself, but you were faster."

"That settles it, we're fine," he started walking faster. He was not fine. Jessica didn't want to push the conversation any further, he was definitely not in a talking mood, they got to the common and Jessica tried to break the ice.

"It's good to be back, isn't?" asked Jessica. Sirius nodded. "Do you want to sit with me in our favorite place by the fire?"

"Actually, I am kind of tired. I think I will go to sleep."

"Oh, okay then, see you tomorrow." She gave him a kiss, but apparently he was not in a kissing mood either. "Sweet dreams."

"Yeah, yeah," he said and he left.

Jessica did not know what to think. Did he take Brian seriously? She did not want to ask, because she thought she had proven to him that she loved him enough not to dump him like Brian said. Lily was back waiting in the dormitory.

"So how did it go Jess?" asked Lily as soon as Jessica entered the room.

"It went fine, at least I thought it went fine until we got back, Sirius is really upset with something and I don't know why." Jessica told Lily everything that happened.

"That's awful Jess, and did you tell him you are not mad?" asked Lily.

"I did, but it didn't work," said Jessica gloomily.

"You know, you will have to talk about it eventually," Lily counseled.

"Nay… I think I will just let it go. We will forget about it in no time. How did things go with you?"

"It was great, James was doing really well. Until Petunia got there with her fiancée. Vernon it's awful, worse than her. James started using the same kind of practical jokes that Sirius used on Brian. Mom and Dad were furious. But we talked it over and James promised my parents he will not use magic on family members again."

"I can't believe this two were miles apart, doing the exact same thing," said Jessica in disbelieve. Both laughed.

The week that followed was not a time to play around. With NEWTs around the corner they were super busy, homework and tons of studying to prepare for the tests to come. They arrived at potions classroom and Professor Slughorn told them Professor Dumbledore was waiting for Lily, James, Remus, Peter, Jessica and Sirius in his office. They knew exactly what Dumbledore wanted . He wanted to ask about the wolfbane potion. And they were right, it was the first thing he asked.

"We still working on it professor," said Lily.

"I just think it's time to put this research aside," said Dumbledore.

"No, please, professor. It's my only hope for a normal life," cried Remus.

"We will put it aside for now, but I want to take your notes to Damocles, I am sure it will be very useful. I need you to concentrate on yours NEWTs. After you leave Hogwarts I can put you in contract if Damocles and you can carry on the research with him."

That was fair enough. Jessica had an urge to ask Dumbledore something that was bugging her for a while. "Professor, all of us here want to fight Voldemort when we are done with school. We were wondering about the Order of the Phoenix, and what you guys do."

"I am very sorry, but I can't discuss this if you. Ask me again when school is over." It was the same answer he gave James. "But I am impressed to see you speaking his name."

"Fear the name only increase fear..."

"…for the thing itself, very good Ms. Thompson." Dumbledore added and she blushed a bit. "Unless someone else has something else to say I think we are done." He waited, no one spoke. "Okay then, back to your classes."


	10. Chapter 10

Sirius changed a lot as the days went by, their relationship was colder and colder. They were in the middle of May now and Jessica tried everything she could to make things go back to how they used to be, but even with all her efforts Sirius grew distant.

Adding to that, James and Sirius started picking on Severus again. One day Severus was running, apparently late for something and Sirius cursed him with a Locomotor Mortis, Severus legs locked at once and he fell face down on the floor. But that was not all, they were hitting him with jelly-legs jinxes all the time, mostly at the Great Hall when lots students were around and the one Jessica thought it was the worse one, the knee-reversing hex that causes the target's knee to become backwards, for her dislike the knee-reversing hex was very popular with them, their favorite thing to do besides hanging Severus upside down by his ankle. Lily and Jessica fixed all the things James and Sirius messed up a second later, but they still couldn't help Severus with the shame he felt every time he was hit with something. 

One may think Jessica had enough to handle already, but sadly it wasn't enough. James and Lily started pressuring Jessica to try to talk with Sirius and make things get straight again. Sirius was always in bad mood and all his friends were starting to get annoyed by it and they knew Jessica was the only one who could fix it.

"Come on Lily," said Jessica one day as they were getting ready in the morning. "I know Sirius told James what's wrong, you could just ask him."

"I tried Jess, lots of times," Lily said impatiently. "Sirius does not want to tell James what's wrong. To tell you the truth, he says everything its fine."

"I don't understand why he won't talk to me," Jessica said frustrated. She did try asking what was bothering him several times and always got the _I am fine_ answer.

"Jess, you will have to make him talk," Lily finally said. "It's the only way things can get back to normal."

Jessica was really scared as she left her dormitory looking for Sirius, she felt insecure. He was not at the common room but some girls told Jessica that he left a few minutes ago. She looked a bit inside the school then headed to the grounds. She saw him sitting by the lake, alone. It was the chance she was waiting for.

She sat by him, but Sirius didn't even look at her. She did not know what to say, or how to start.

"It's a pretty day outside. Nice and warm, isn't?" she asked, but he did not say anything. She knew she probably sounded really dumb. "Sirius, will you look at me?" It took him a moment before looking at her, their eye met. "Will you tell me what is bugging you lately?" He tried to look away. "Looking at me, please."

"I don't even know what's wrong," he sighed.

"Will you tell me what's in your mind then?" she asked kindly. "What are you thinking right now?"

He took his time before speaking again.

"How long did you date Brian ?"

"A summer, two months and a half, why?" said Jessica feeling dazed.

He gave an ironic laugh. "And you told him you loved him."

"Oh, Sirius I was young and stupid," she said delicately. "I said that because he was my first boyfriend, I didn't know any better. I did not love him."

"How can I trust you when you told me?" she heard him mutter. "We were dating for just two months."

"You can trust me Sirius, I do love you, really," she pleaded. "Please believe me."

He looked deep into her eyes. "Okay," he sounded dry and turned to the lake.

Jessica knew at once that the problem was not over, there're more to it. "What else? Tell me, we need to be able to talk things over."

"I don't know how to say this," he said sighing deeply. "I am afraid I will get dumped like he said."

This was very serious, she knew she had to think well before speaking, and she took her time, then said. "Do you remember the talk I had in private with Professor Slughorn?"

"Yes. Are you going to tell me what you kept in secret?"

"Yes," she said with a smile, but he didn't smile back. "He was worried with our relationship, he says I will go places, I will do things, and I guess he was afraid you were going to keep me from it."

"WHAT? Did he say that?" Sirius was really mad now. "What is he thinking? He has no right.."

"Wait. I told him off, and he apologized. Do you want to know what I told him?" he nodded. "I told him I was not going anywhere without you. I wouldn't dumb you."

"That is exactly my point." He stood up running his finger through his hair, he tried to shake his frustrations way, catching attention of some students lurking around the lake. "I know you wouldn't. But I don't know if I want you to."

Jessica jumped to her feet, her heart racing. "What are you trying to say? You don't love me? If in my future I have to sacrifice things because of you I will, unless you want to tell me your love is not strong enough, unless you tell me my sacrifices are not worth the little you feel me." She felt her heart sinking.

"No, no, no, of course I love you," he said trying to calm her down. "With every fiber of my being, but since Brian told me that stuff I realized I would keep you from important things. When I get off school I won't go looking for a job right a way. I want to live my life out there first. But you are different, you worked so hard to get good grades to go off to do something amazing, and I do not want to stay in your way, keeping you from your great achievements."

"Sirius, you are being ridicules," she snapped. "I belong by your side. I don't want a career if that will keep me from you. Please, lets just forget all this."

"NO, I WON'T. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT I AM SAYING." He shouted, several of people were looking at them now. Jessica eyes got full of tears. Sirius felt really bad, he put his hand on her shoulders. "I am sorry I yelled at you. Jessica I need some time. I need to be by myself for a while to think about things."

"What good will that do?" she said with tears rushing down her face.

"Please, give me some time?" he implored. "Please."

"Okay," she said weakly, feeling devastated.

Sirius gave her a kiss on the forehead and left. Jessica stood there, frozen, with tears falling freely. She looked around, several people were staring at her, she spotted Severus reading a book under a tree, he quickly turned his eye the other way once their eyes met. Feeling humiliated, she decided to go back inside.

She got to the common room James, Lily and Remus were sitting on a table writing essays.

"Jessica, what happened? Sirius walked by us did not even look." Remus got to his feet. "Oh, are you crying?"

"What happened Jess?" asked Lily quickly coming to her friend.

"He broke up with me," she said letting out a small sob.

"HE WHAT?" James roared jumping on his feet too.

"Well, he asked for some time. That the same thing, isn't? How many couples do you know that go back to normal after some time apart?"

"Oh, Jessica I am so sorry," said Remus going on her direction, but she ran to her room before he could get to her, sobbing.

Jessica spend the whole weekend in bed, she cried, cursed, slept and then cried again. Lily brought food to her, but she ate just a little, she did not feel like eating. Lily tried to talk with her a few times but Jessica did not want to talk, so Lily stopped trying. On Sunday she got three letters from home, mom, dad and Willy. They were super worried about her, apparently someone wrote them telling what happened, they asked her to write back but she did not feel like writing either. Late that day Lily came in and tried talking with her again.

"Jess, you need to put yourself together," she said quietly. "We have classes tomorrow and we are just a couple weeks from our NEWTs."

"I will go to classes tomorrow don't worry," but started crying again. "Have you seen Sirius?"

"Yes, but he won't talk to us though. He is alone all this time."

"Did he ask about me?"

"He did, he asked if you were out of bed yet. Someone told him you are here crying all this time. Try to get some sleep, tomorrow it's a new day, new week."

"Will you stay here until I fall asleep?" asked Jessica trying to dry her tears.

"Yes, I will be here with you." Lily sat on the floor by her, and held her hand till she fell asleep.

The following week was worse than she thought it would be. Her friends were dividing themselves so neither Sirius or Jessica would stay alone, sometimes Remus and Peter hanged out with Jessica another time James and Lily. Studying was getting hard too. Every time she sat on the library it reminded her of Sirius, sitting by her, making her laugh every five minutes, the laughs were replaced by tears, it was the only place she couldn't avoid crying in public.

Lots of people were asking her what happened, and every time she answered that Sirius asked for some time, she felt her heart aching like never before, the pain getting stronger every day. On Saturday they went to Hogsmeade. NEWTs was just a week away so it was a nice break, to refresh their minds. Lily and James said they were going with her. She assumed Remus and Peter were going with Sirius.

They were at Honeydukes when Professor Slughorn came to talk with Jessica.

"Mss Thompson I have someone here that I want you to meet. Will come with me to Hog's Head?

Jessica followed him, she never went there herself, it was a pub full of weird looking wizards. Slughorn helped Jessica to a chair on a table where a men she did not recognize was sitting.

"This is Galactus Brisson he is the head of the Department of Mysteries. Have you heard of it?" asked Slughorn.

"Of course I have," said Jessica, feeling underdressed to be meeting such an important man. "It's nice to meet you sir"

"The pleasure it's mine. Slughorn told me lots about you." Jessica blushed a little, she was looking around, it was a really weird place, _why would someone want to hang out here_, she kept thinking. "I like to come here Ms Thompson, because I always learn a lot, always something suspicious going on."

Could he read her mind? _How rude_, she thought. He was looking around.

"AHA, that's why I like to come here." He had his eyes fixed on a table in a corner, Jessica looked and saw four figures, but didn't think she knew who was sitting there, the air was so full of thick smoke she could barely see. "I see Mulciber and Nott there. I have reasons to believe they are Death Eaters. The other two are students, they've been meeting here, trying to get fresh graduated students to join them. Do you know the students names, Professor?"

"It's hard to see, give me a moment…" he was focusing hard. "Oh dear, I see Rosier, he is a beater on the Slytherin team, very talented." Jessica gave Slughorn a furious look, Rosier played really dirty, always causing several injuries per game. Slughorn did not even noticed Jessica's behavior, because she was still trying to see who the other student was. "It's hard to see the other one, wait… Yes, yes… It's Severus Snape," he added shaking his head.

Jessica's heart sunk, Severus joining Voldemort? It had to be a mistake. She looked at the table, she had to try hard to focus her sight, then she saw him. It was indeed Severus, talking with death eaters.

"I wanted to meet you, because I think I have a job for you," said Brisson. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"No, please, go ahead." But her mind was not there she was looking at Severus.

"Do you know what you will do after Hogwarts?" he asked.

"I am not sure, I want to work for the Ministry, no doubt. But I also want to fight Voldemort and his followers if possible." Brisson gave a small gasp when Jessica said Voldemort name.

Severus stood up, he was leaving.

"Are you okay my dear? You look as pale as Bloody Baron," asked Slughorn.

"I am really sorry. Now it's not a good time." She stood up. "Please forgive me." And hurried out the door.

"Miss Thompson…" Brisson started but she couldn't hear anything else as the door closed behind her.

She looked around, searching for Severus. She saw him going up the street. Jessica jostled her way through a group of Ravenclaws, walking as fast as she could till she got to him.

"Severus I need to talk with you," she said breathlessly.

"Oh boy, I will leave, I don't want to hear what she wants to say," said Rosier, rolling his eyes. "But if you give him problems I won't be far," he threaded her showing his wand.

"What do you want?" said Snape on a sniffy voice. "Now that Sirius finally dumped you need a shoulder to cry? I am not available, go away."

"I saw you Severus," she said urgently. "I saw you with those people."

"What people?" he pretended.

"The Death Eaters," she said.

"I don't know what you are talking about," he said turning to his heels. "Goodbye." He started walking away quickly.

"You do too," she said trying to keep up with him. "Severus, are you joining Voldemort?"

"Don't speak his name, are you a fool?" he turned to her, looking furious.

"I am not afraid of him," she exclaimed.

"But you should." He got really close to her and said no louder then a whisper . "I am joining the stronger side, the powerful one, the side that will win. The Dark Lord has plans and I like them. It's none of you business who I join. But I will advice you, if you want to live to join the Dark Lord."

"NEVER," she said louder the she needed, some people turned their attention to them.

"It's your choice," he whispered even lower. "I will send you flowers to your funeral."

"Severus come on," she said smiling. "This is stupid."

"No it's not, this is very serious. I ask you, please join us," Severus tried to wheedle her.

"I rather die than join your evil master," said Jessica bitterly.

"I am glad we got that settled," he said full of arrogance. "You will die, as you wish, and I will be on his side. Hunting stupid fools such yourself."

"Unless I hunt you down first," she snarled. "And believe me I will bring you down if I have to."

"Or we can settle this now," he pulled his wand out. "Shall we?"

"I am not doing this again, let me remind you, last time you were unconscious for a week."

"Get your wand out or I will attack you anyway," he warned her.

"Go on. I am not afraid of you," she said challenging his limits.

He stared right past her shoulder, and put his wand away. "You are very lucky," he said and slopped away.

Jessica turned around, she saw, Lily, James, Remus, Peter, Sirius, Professor Slughorn and Galactus Brisson, all of them had their wand out. Jessica knew at once they were all pointing it at Severus.

"I am really sorry about this sir," Jessica apologized to Brisson.

"I've seen enough," he said, making her felt awful, she blew it. "And I like it," he added. She felt relieved. "I shall contact you again soon, I have the perfect job for you." He and Professor Slughorn left.

Jessica looked at his friends. She saw Sirius, gave him a small smile and waited to see if he was going to say or do something, but he didn't. He turned around and left, Remus and Peter followed.


	11. Chapter 11

Since the NEWTs were very close Jessica was able to put her pain aside and concentrate in studying. She spend most of her time with Remus that week. They would have studying sections with everybody together and Sirius came too, every once in a while Sirius would speak with Jessica, but always school related. It was even worse to have casual conversations and pretend everything was normal. She was still crying at night, it was really hard to put her head on the pillow and don't feel pain almost instantly.

Jessica and Lily made the goal of studying all they could until Friday and after that just relax. They did not want to put their hands in a single book the whole weekend. Friday morning she was at the library with Remus.

"Remus, do you really want study right now?"

"Depends, why are you asking?" he said closing the book he was reading.

"Would you go for a walk with me?" she said weakly. "I need to talk."

He didn't even answer, he stood up and left with her. They were spending a lot of time together and Jessica got to the point where she trusted him. They went outside. Spring was Jessica's favorite season, they were walking towards the Quidditch field.

"Do you think Sirius will take me back?" she asked timidly.

"Is this a serious question?" he smiled at her. "Of course he will take you back. He just needs some time."

"But it's taking such long time. He barely even speaks to me." Remus stopped walking and turned to look at Jessica , while she spoke. "I mean, I am suffering a whole lot, it's almost unbearable. Sometimes I feel like he doesn't even care about the my pain, about hurting me. He is acting like he is fine. "

"Of course he cares about you," he blurted out. "He worries that you are in pain, and believe me he is not fine. He's been doing some deep thinking, it's like he is trying to figure out his whole life."

"How long do you think he will take?" she moaned..

"I hope it won't take long," he sighed. "I don't know if you thought about this, but for us it's hard too, seeing two dear friends suffering like you two are."

She did not think about that, it was probably really hard on them too. They talked for an hour or so then went in for lunch. Sirius, Lily, James and Peter were already sitting eating when they got there. After lunch they were going on their last study section at the library, Remus held Jessica back so he could talk with her. He waited until they were alone.

"I can prove to you that he cares about you" he whispered. "While you are studying, look at him every once and a while. You will catch him looking at you lots of times. I've been watching him all week, he looks at you more than he reads, you concentrate so much in your study that you never noticed it," he smiled. "And I need to tell you something, he was the one that told me to spend this much time with you this week, trying to keep your mind off him."

Jessica did as Remus told her, at first she felt skeptical, she didn't think it was possible she missed Sirius staring at her a whole week. But Remus was right, every time she looked at Sirius he was looking at her, and he would quickly look away. She started wondering if he was getting any study done. She couldn't concentrate anymore, she decided to mess with him a bit.

She looked at him, their eyes met, she blinked and looked away, and soon after looked at him again, he was looking down with a pleased smile. They played silent games like that the whole night.

When they left the library it was already late. They got to the common room everybody just said good nights and went to bed. Jessica couldn't sleep, she kept thinking about Sirius, this time she was not crying she was feeling happy, because for the first time in weeks the ice between them was breaking.

The room was really silent. Suddenly she heard a loud crack, she knew that noise, someone had apparated in her room. She opened her bed curtains and saw a house elf there.

"Me is really sorry Miss, but Mr. Black ordered me here," he squeaked. "He needs you to go out of your dormitory. He wishes to speak to you."

Her heart started beating really fast, skipping a beat or two. What did he want? Was he going to break up for good or take her back? She got out of bed, put her sleeping robes and headed to the door, when she opened the door Sirius was already waiting standing in front of her. Without saying a word he kissed her, getting her feet out of the ground for a few moments.

Sirius held Jessica so tightly she could feel his heart beating against hers, his arms wrapped around her waist. Jessica hands were tangled in his hair, with her thumbs under his jawbone. She felt her knees starting to give as they shared a very passionate kiss, Sirius once more lifted her of the floor. It felt great to be held by him again, and this kiss was not only just a kiss, she never felt that much passion inside her in her life, and it lasted a long time.

"Sirius…" she said breathing heavily. He kept kissing her…. "we need to talk."

"Yes we do," but he didn't let go, and they kept on kissing.

"I am serious," she said again, but making no effort to break the kiss off.

"Me too," none of them let go.

After a while Jessica pushed him way. "We really need to talk," she said, both breathing were labored.

"I know, I am sorry," he said taking deep breaths. "It's just that, we haven't done this in a while, I couldn't control myself."

"No need to apologize, I couldn't control myself either." He grabbed Jessica's hand and they rushed down the stairs, they sat in their usual seat by the fire. The common room was completely empty.

"I did a lot of thinking," he started. "And I still don't have all the answers I need. But, one thing I am sure, I can't stay away from you…"

"I can't stay away from you either," she added. "I am miserable without you," she pouted jokily, and he smiled.

"I figured we deal with job and careers when the time comes, but now lets enjoy ourselves because we never know what the future brings."

She hugged him. "Thanks Sirius, please never do that again."

"I won't. I just need to tell you one more thing, a condition." She let go and looked at him. "When you finally get a job offer that you like, I want to take it. It's not like we will have to break up because you work for the Ministry, besides I am sure I will be busy with the Order too."

"But if they send me away? You know, out of the country," she asked.

"Then I will go with you. I mean, think about it, what do I have here? Only you, really, there is nothing tying me here, so I will go with you, doesn't matter where."

Jessica agreed with him and sat on his lap, they started kissing again.

"You know what?" Jessica asked giving him a small kiss.

"What?" he kissed her back.

"Can't wait the tell our friends we're back together." Kiss

"Me too." Kiss again.

Jessica jumped all of a sudden. "I know what we should do. A joke, you know like a prank."

"Now we are talking." Sirius really liked the idea. They planned it out really carefully what to do the next morning. Sirius walked Jessica to her door and they kissed goodnight, this time a little softer and sweeter.

Next morning Jessica pretended to be asleep until Lily left, she knew Lily was going over to James dormitory because that's what she always did on Saturday morning. Jessica waited about half an hour and then she made her way to the boys dormitory as well. She caught a big breath before she went in, she blasted the door open in such a away everybody in the room jumped a little.

"Sirius, what is this?" she said angrily, holding a piece of parchment. "If this is one of your jokes, I'll tell you, it's not funny."

"No, it's not a joke." He stood up facing Jessica. "This is the reason why we can never be together again."

Lily gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. James looked in shock. Jessica couldn't see Remus or Peter because they were behind her.

"Gay, Sirius? Is this your explanation?" she growled at him "Is this your way out?"

"What is she talking about Sirius?" James finally asked. They ignored him.

"This is serious Jessica. It's quite recent too," he said awkwardly. "I just found out."

"Just found out?" she roared. "How?"

"Well I kind of developed a crush in a friend of mine," said Sirius. James looked horrified and Lily looked disgusted.

Jessica drew her wand out and pointed at Sirius.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Well, I can't have that," said Jessica darkly. "How do you expect me to raise a child of a gay dad?"

Lily gave another gasp. "Are you pregnant?" They ignored her too.

Sirius was laughing now. "What? Are you going to kill me, just because I decided that I like James better than you?" Jessica looked at James and he was pale, like he was about to pass out.

"I just might do that…" she said, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on James's face.

"Well I better defend myself then." Sirius took his wand out and pointed to Jessica too.

"STOP, both of you." came a angry voice from behind Jessica, it was Remus and he was furious. "For crying aloud, you're Headboy and girl, are you going to just sit and watch this happening?" he said looking at James and Lily. "Lower our wand right a way," he demanded.

Jessica and Sirius stared each other in the eye with their wand raised. They waited until the tension in the room was too much to handle. Then Sirius lowered his wand, and started laughing. Jessica did the same.

"We are back together. We made up last night," said Sirius. No one reacted.

"It's a joke people," said Jessica.

"Merlins Jess, that was not funny," Lily said catching her breath for the first time in ten minutes, her expression changed from puzzlement to delight.

All the boys were laughing hysterically. "Very clever," said Remus. "You really had me there."

"Congratulations." James came and gave Sirius a hug, he let go all of a sudden. "That gay thing, crush on me was really a joke right?"

"Of course," Sirius laughed.

"Okay, because I was already making plans. You know, I would have to dump Lily too."

Both laughed. Lily hit James on the head.

"And you are not really pregnant, Right?" Lily eyed Jessica strangely.

"Heavens no Lily."

Everybody was over excited, everything was back to normal. They went down for breakfast and lots of people came to congratulate Sirius and Jessica, but of course some girls were not pleased to see them back together. Jessica made sure to kiss Sirius in front of every girl that twisted their noses when they saw Jessica and Sirius together.

At the Great Hall Remus whispered, making sure no one heard him. "You know what this call for! Later today, Hogsmeade. Round of drinks on me."

The week that followed was their NEWTs. For Jessica's surprise things went very smooth, she wasn't as nervous as she thought she would be. She knew she was not going to have any problems with her theories tests but she was a bit worried about the practical ones, but Sirius calmed her down. She did the best she could and hoped for the best, and felt really pleased with herself. Sirius did well as well, he did better in the practical tests than the theory ones, but she was imprested anyway.

"When do you reckon we will get our grades?" she asked Sirius, they were outside walking, the grass rippled under their feet as the marched down the lawn.

"Probably three to four weeks, I think it's just like our OWLs."

"I hope it takes less than that," she said full of anxiety. "Waiting for OWLs was torture."

Sirius laughed. "I am sure it was… Freak."

"Ha, ha, ha," she faked a ironic laugh. "Don't tell me you were not curious to find out if you did well."

"No. I don't care about my grades like you do," he added.

Jessica was dying to ask Sirius something. She just had to. "If you are not going to get a job, how do you intend to provide for yourself? I mean, your family won't support you. Are you going to live with the Potter's forever?"

"Of course not," he said raising his eyebrows. "I will buy a place of my own."

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that without money?" she asked him.

"Who said anything about money?" He smiled. "I have money. Do you think I am broke?"

"Oh yeah," she said doubtably . "How is that possible? You never worked in your life, you're probably not in yours parents will, it's easy to assume you have no money."

"Oh that's sweet," he said giving her an extra squeeze. "You mean to tell me, that you love me even though you think I am broke?"

"Love has nothing to do with money Sirius," she said rolling her eyes.

"For most people it does," he gave a sarcastic laugh. "Don't worry I have enough money to live well for the rest of my life without working."

"And how it's that?" she asked.

"My uncle Alphard left me a fair amount of gold," he said, but this time he sounded a bit gloomy.

"Wow, I had no idea. He must've really liked you."

"You can say that," he said.

Jessica was looking at the forest now, whose threes were swaying darkly in the distance. She just realized that in her seven years of Hogwarts the closest she ever got to the dark forest was when Sirius took her to the Shrieking Shack.

"Have you been there?" Sirius asked.

"Where? The forest? No, and I don't plan to, it's dangerous, isn't?"

"No it's not," smiled Sirius. "I've been there lots of times, I've seen some fascinating creatures in there."

"What kind of creatures?" she asked.

"Do you want to go see it?" Sirius grinned at Jessica.

"I think I rather not."

"What do you think could happen? Trust me it's not dangerous," he insisted. "And if we get caught what could happen? We are two weeks away from graduation."

"I don't know…" said Jessica uncertainly.

"I will ask Hagrid to go with us," he tried to convince her.

"Okay," she said, but still feeling a bit unsure.

"Shall we dear?" Sirius started pulling Jessica towards Hagrid's hut.

"Now?" she asked.

"Yes, before you change your mind."

Jessica never been to Hagrid's hut before, it looked really dirty and old, she did not know how someone could live in such place. They knocked and waited. A giant man opened the door, Jessica could hardly see his face because it was covered by this wild hair and tangled beard.

"Hello, Sirius. Yeh all done wit' yer tests I thin'?" Hagrid rumbled.

"Yes, we are all done," replied Sirius.

"Blimey, Mss Thompson yer here," Hagrid was slow to notice she was there. "Nice final game, hey?"

"Thanks," she said feeling a bit awkward because she barely knew him, after all this years.

"Come in please, I'll make tea," said Hagrid.

"Actually we came for another reason," said Sirius. "Jessica never went inside of the forest. I thought you might want to join us?"

"O' course not" he thundered. "It's agains' the rules. No."

"Come on Hagrid who do you think you're joking? I went inside the forest tons of times, and you know it. Whose better than yourself to go show Jessica everything in there? You are like the forest guru."

Hagrid blushed. "Oka' I'll take yeh." He closed the door and all of them headed to the forest.

Jessica broke the rules so many times already, that for the first time she was not scared of what she was doing. Hagrid really knew everything about the forest. He showed her details that she would never notice if she was by herself.

"What kind of creatures live in the forest?" Jessica asked Hagrid.

"To many to tell, the most exactin' ones are the Acromantulas…"

"You mean giant spiders?" Jessica interrupted with a horrified voice.

"Yes, Yer see, I set Aragog free here when I…"

"You named it? Did you really named it?" Jessica could not believe what she was hearing.

"O' course I did. It's my pet after all."

"Your pet? You got to be kidding," said Jessica in disbelieve.

"Actually he is not kidding. Hagrid it's fascinated by creatures that most people are terrified of," explained Sirius.

"I just don't need to see Aragog, today, I will pass that," Jessica finally said. "What else can we find here?"

"I wouldn't take yer there anyway. Never took a stranger to their nes'. Yer see, his sons and daughter don't harm me, but I don't know if it's safe for someone else." They were going deeper and deeper inside the forest. "Oh yeah, the creatures. We have centaurs, thestrals, and unicorns, lots of people say trolls and werewolves but I never seen one, so I am not sure about tha'."

"Do you think we will see some…" she heard a noise behind her, she turned quickly. "What was that?" she smelled something funny. "What is this awful smell?

"Oh, righ', yer can't see them."

"See what?" she asked.

"Thestrals," Hagrid replied.

"Where?" She said looking around but did not find it.

"Righ' behind you."

She turned and still did not see it. "How come…"

"Yer don't see them?" Hagrid asked before she could finish. "It's not everybody tha' can see them. Yer see, thestrals are invisible to anyone who ha' not seen death. We have a herd of abou' hundre' of them."

"I see. And can you see them?" she asked.

"I can't," said Sirius.

"I can," said Hagrid.

"How do they look like?" she asked again.

"They are huge winged horses wit' white shining eyes, dragonish faces and necks, and skeletal black bodies. They are gorgeous."

But by his description Jessica had a hard time believing they were "gorgeous", she had a horrific picture in her mind. They kept on going. Deeper and deeper, it was starting to get dark.

"Oh Look yer even get a threat Mss Thompson." Hagrid said while getting something that looked like hair out of a tree trunk. "It's unicorn hair, very special."

"Really?" said Jessica with amazement. "Do you think we will see one today?"

" I doub', they don't show themselves often. And they are really quick too."

"I saw them before, in class" she recalled. "But it's not the same thing, I wanted to see them free, you know, in the wild.."

"That would be neat," said Sirius after a long time of silence. "We better head back, it's getting dark." They turned around.

"Yer know what else I saw here, it's od' because I never seen more than one."

"What Hagrid?" she asked.

"A stag," said Hagrid. Sirius choked loudly and started coughing.

"Really? You saw one?" she said, giving a few taps on Sirius back.

"Oh, come on Hagrid, there is no stag in the forest, stop joking," said Sirius, he sounded very nervous.

"I didn' believe it at fisr'. See, the stag had a huge black dog with him. I though' I went crazy, but after tha' I've seen the stag two more times, always wit' his dog."

"That's funny," laughed Jessica. "What do you think Sirius?"

"I think Hagrid finally lost it, honestly, I stag that has a dog as a friend," he laughed uncomfortably.

Hagrid kept telling her more about the forest while they came back. She was really enjoying everything, Hagrid knew so much, she was very impressed. Sirius in the other hand was really bored. Jessica could tell he regretted calling Hagrid to come with them.

Jessica heard noises again, she looked to her left and she recognized what she saw. It was a centaur, she had seen pictures of them.

"Hi there Firenze," said Hagrid friendly. "You've met young Black here, and this is Miss Thompson..."

"I know who she is. That is why I came, to take a good look at her." Jessica felt really uncomfortable as the centaur stared at her longer than normal and then he looked at the stars. "The stars showed me you're going to be here tonight." Jessica kept thinking it was getting odd.

"Why did you want to take a good look at her?" demanded Sirius.

"Because she will assist the only person that can defeat the Dark Wizard, the most feared of all times," said the centaur, taking turns looking to the sky then back at Jessica.

"You mean she will fight Voldemort? All of us will," said Sirius. Jessica wrapped both of her arms around Sirius right arm, she was feeling a bit scared.

"I know you will, but I can't guarantee all of you will survive till the final battle. But I am sure she will," he pointed at her and looked at the sky again. "Yeah, I am sure, you will help the only person that can destroy him."

"You mean Dumbledore?" asked Jessica.

"Dumbledore it's a great wizard, the greatest one alive. But he won't live to see the Dark wizard destroyed," he prophesized.

Jessica felt cold rush running through her veins, she covered her mouth with one hand and kept holding Sirius arm with the other, her legs felt like jelly for a moment. She looked at Sirius for a brief moment, he was very pale, just as shocked as she was.

"The one that can defeat him," the centaurs went on, "it's not born yet." As he finished, two more centaurs' approached.

"Are you telling this humans our secrets?" asked one of them.

"I know both of you came to look at her. She deserves to know why." They didn't say anything else, and indeed, they took a good look at her and left.

"Well, we're goin' now," said Hagrid with shaky voice. "Bye Firenze."

On their way out of the forest Jessica saw many centaurs off in the darkness, they would wait until she passed and then gallop away. No one said a word till they were out of the forest.

"We better get going, see you Hagrid," said Sirius.

"Bye, Hagrid thank you for the company," said Jessica. Hagrid just waived and went inside his hut.

They went straight to the boys dormitory and found a note on top of Sirius bed.

Gone to Hogsmeade.  
Celebrating end of tests.  
We couldn't find you and Jessica, so we went without you.  
Come join us when you see this note.  
See you,  
James, Lily, Remus and Peter.

"Do you want to go Jess?"

"Nay, I already too tired." She sat on his bed. "Do you really believe those centaurs can tell the future by looking at the stars?"

"I was afraid you took them seriously. I think they are full of rubbish. Don't worry. This Firenze tells me all the time that I am the most unfortunate human he's ever seen," he said laughing. "And honestly my life does not suck, it's perfect." He sat by her and gave her a big kiss. "I am glad we have some alone time, we deserve it after all those exams."

"We sure do." But her mind was not there, she was still thinking in what the very young centaur said.


	12. Chapter 12

A day went by it was easy not to think about the centaurs, Jessica was practically school free. None of the teachers were giving them homework and some of them were not even teaching anymore, giving the seventh years plenty of free time. Jessica lost count of how many times she went to Hogsmeade and back, they went everyday and sometimes more than once.

After lunch on Wednesday as they were sneaking out, they bumped into Dumbledore on their way out of the Great Hall. All of them tried to look innocent, Dumbledore stared at them and said, "I am craving acid pops," and he left without another word. They broke into a run, laughing. First thing they did when they got to the village was to buy a fair amount of acid pops. Later that day Lily and James had a meeting with Dumbledore, and to his delight, they just happened to have their pockets full of his favorite threat.

And the week went on like that, pure enjoyment, from the morning till when Jessica laid her head on her pillow at night. She didn't even feel the weekend go by, because everyday felt like a weekend now. On Monday night Lily and James had their last meeting with Dumbledore. Jessica, Sirius, Remus and Peter were waiting in the common room, because they knew Lily and James were going to come back full of information regarding their graduation celebration. And they were right. Lily and James had a lot to say.

"So," Lily started. "The ceremony will take place on the grounds, by the lake. They will put chairs…" and she went on describing every detail. "Oh, and Dumbledore arranged so your parents can come…"

"Joy," said Jessica. "They will only see ruins."

"Of course not Jess," snapped Lily. "They will see the real deal. It's going to be for just couple of hours."

"But won't the other muggles see it too?" asked Remus.

"The Ministry will take care of it, they will have people making sure no muggle comes near the castle, unless of course, they are a guest," explained James.

"After the ceremony," Lily continued, "the parents will leave. We will have about two hours to change and then head down to the Great Hall, for a dance," she said giving Remus and Peter a sharp look. "With dates," she added.

"Dance? Really? Oh that is so cool." Jessica definitely liked the news, she jumped and on Sirius lap and said, "Aren't you glad you don't need to hunt for a date?" He smiled and kissed her.

"Dates? Well that sucks, I will need to go on a hunt then," said Remus, "me and Peter. Depressing."

"Oh it will be fun," Lily tried to cheer Remus up.

"Hurray, can't wait," he said in a very unenthusiastic way.

"Next day," James said, "we leave Hogwarts forever. It's our choice if we want to ride the train back or not. It leaves at noon, personally I want to ride the train."

"Me too," said five voices together.

After that bunch of news, the time started going even faster. Three days went by without Jessica noticing. Friday afternoon she got an owl from home.

"My mom, dad and Willy are coming," she told Sirius. "They are so happy for us. Mom said my grandparents want to come, but they don't know for sure yet."

"I guess I can't count on my family to be there," said Sirius depressingly. 

"Yes you can," said Jessica with a gentle smile. "Sirius, we are a big family. The Potters have you as a son, and my family already considers you part of the family too. It will be great."

"You're right, I can care less if my real parents don't come, the people that care about me will be here."

"Tomorrow it's the day…" Jessica said and gave him a soft kiss.

"Yes, it is…" he replied putting his arms around her waist and lifting her feet out of the ground as he kissed her.

Graduation day at last. Right after breakfast all the students left, living just he seventh years behind. It was great having the whole castle for themselves. In the morning Jessica and Sirius went for a walk on the grounds and they saw the chairs already out and well organized.

They played their last Quidditch game right before lunch. Since there were not a lot of students left, Sirius, Lily, Remus and Peter played too, with addition of a couple Ravenclaws and Huffepuffs. The game was a big joke Lily was really bad, she got stuck being keeper, and she did not safe a single quaffle. Sirius was playing chaser side by side with Jessica, he would get mad by the second, he yelled more than he played. Peter didn't really do anything, just flew around pretending he was playing. Remus was actually kind of good, he was playing beater.

After lunch they were off to their dormitories to get ready, their parents were arriving in two hours. Of course, the girls needed some much time to get ready. Sirius and James took Jessica and Lily to the common room and they said "see you latter" and went out of the portrait again.

"Wait…" Jessica yelled. "Where are you guys going? You are supposed to get ready."

"I know. But we don't need two hours. We can get ready in two minutes," said Sirius.

"Okay, what are you guys up to?" asked Lily.

James got the marauders map out of his pocket. "We will make sure Filch confiscates it."

"And why exactly are you doing this?" she asked again.

"'Cause we don't need it anymore. So we are leaving it behind, so another student can have it," James said slowly.

"I can't believe you guys are going to get in trouble on graduation day," Jessica was disbelieving.

"Just a little bit, you know, close with golden key," Sirius said laughing. "Don't worry we will be fine, see you in a bit." And they left.

Jessica and Lily looked at each other with disapproving eyes, but none dared to say anything. They went to their dormitory to get ready instead.

They were ready with half an hour to spare, so they went to the boys dormitories. Jessica had curled her hair, and put make up on, she loved wearing make up, since the girls at Hogwarts don't wear it she never wore it either. Lily was wearing her hair up and had just a little bit of make up, she was not into it like Jessica was. Both Sirius and James were blown away when the two entered their room. James rushed to hold Lily and kiss her. Sirius did the same, but when he went to kiss Jessica she said. "No. Lipstick."

"I don't care." And he kissed her anyway. 

Jessica started laughing. "You look silly with lipstick on Sirius."

"You think? I kind of like it. You need to let me borrow it sometime." Jessica laughed even harder.

"You guys haven't changed," Jessica realized. "We need to be down in twenty minutes."

"Right," said Sirius.

All four of them opened their trunks and got the graduation robes out. They slipped it on, then they walked to the mirror and ran their fingers through their hair.

"Okay, we are ready," said James.

Jessica and Lily looked at each other with the same disapproving eyes as before, but again didn't dare to say anything.

The grounds looked beautiful, there was a long table in front of all chairs now, all decorated with pretty and colorful flowers. They saw students leaving the gates towards the village.

"Where are they going?" asked Jessica.

"Probably meet their parents down at the Hogsmeade station," said Sirius.

A lot of people were starting to apparate out of no where.

"Looks like Dumbledore lifted the Apparating charm too," said Lily.

"James!" They heard someone call. It was Mr. Potter, followed by Mrs. Potter.

"We are so proud of you," said his mom kissing him all over his face. "We thought you would be expelled before your graduation." And she kissed him some more.

"Mom you are embarrassing me." She let go of him and went for Sirius.

"We are proud of you too. My our second son. We always wanted more than one. You are my dream come true." She was hugging him very tightly. He was starting to blush.

"Sirius." They heard a third voice. Jessica did not know the woman that called. But Sirius let go of Mrs. Potter at once and ran towards her and gave her a huge hug lifting her up. She had a little girl with her, she didn't look more than eight years old.

"I can't believe you came," he said as he let her go. "I wasn't expecting anyone."

"Of course I was going to come. I would not miss your graduation for anything. Ted send his apologies, he couldn't get off work," the woman said looking proud.

"It's fine, I am glad you are here. I want to meet someone." He pulled her by the hand to where Jessica was standing. "This is my girlfriend, Jessica Thompson. Jessica this is Andromeda, my favorite cousin, this little girl it's her little daughter Tonks."

Jessica was pleased to meet some of Sirius relatives. They greeted each other politely, but were interrupted by Jessica's family and Lily's family. Soon after that Remus dad and Peter parents arrived.

"Hi Remus." Jessica heard a low shy voice, it was the little girl.

"Hi Tonks. How are you?" but she didn't answer, she went hiding behind her mom.

Sirius whispered to Jessica. "She fancies Remus."

"Nonsense Sirius, she it's just a kid, she is too young," she snapped.

"You're never too young to have a crush, and believe me," He added looking at Tonks, her face was bright red. "She does have a crush on Remus."

It was like a big party, everybody were glowing if joy and happiness. Some people were already getting seats. Since their group turned out to be quite big they did the same, so they would be able to sit all together.

The ceremony started. All teachers were sitting up in the long table in front of them. Dumbledore spoke a little bit. The Minister then stood up and said a few words too. Dumbledore stood up again and started to give the diplomas away. It looked pretty much like a normal muggle graduation, he would say the student name, the student would go there get the diploma, shake hands with all the professors then go back to their seat, only difference was that when the name of the student was called he or she would just apparate right in front of Dumbledore, followed by sounds of amazements from the parents.

After the ceremony, the Thompsons and the Evans to took a tour of the castle. They didn't have a lot of time so it was a very quick thing. Their visit was indeed very short. After Sirius and James family left, they took the Thompsons and the Evans to the carriage. On their way back they met Mr. Brisson.

"Hello, Miss Thompson. It was a lovely graduation, don't you think?"

"Yes it was," she replied

He totally ignored Sirius, Lily and James. "I was wondering if you could come sometime next week to my office, for that job interview."

"Sure, when?" she asked.

"Anytime it's good for me, just send an owl ahead."

"Okay," she agreed. "See you next week."

"See you, Miss Thompson." 

Lily and James started teasing her, about being the first one to get a job. Sirius was the only that did not look pleased.

"What's the matter Sirius?" Jessica asked.

"He is head of the Department of Mysteries, isn't he?" he asked with a frown.

"Yes, why?"

"It's a dangerous place, and people that work there don't have a life," he said thoughtfully. "Because everything they do it's top secret. Is that what you want?"

"I didn't get the job yet," she said feeling a bit annoyed. "Let's not stress before time." Sirius was still tense.

"Oh, come on mate," James jumped in, he put his arm around Sirius, in brotherly embrace. "It's time to get ready. We have a dance to go to. And we will have lots of fun!" Sirius loosened up at once and they walked back up to the castle.

This time around the boys took longer to get ready, because they took baths before going down to meet Jessica and Lily at the common room. Both, Sirius and James were looking very good, they combed their hair back, it was actually the first time Jessica saw Sirius face without hair falling into his eyes, which Jessica loved, at least his natural hair showed elegance, different from James's hair, which was naturally messy and all over the place.

"You are gorgeous," she said running her fingers up and down his face.

"Not as gorgeous as you are," he handed her a single red rose. "I can be cheesy when I want," he joked.

The dance was perfect, Sirius decided to step up and act like an gentleman, giving Jessica the time of her life. They danced for hours and most of the time forgetting about their friends, because they were so in to each other. By the end of the night Jessica was soaking wet.

"I need to go up and change my dress," Jessica told Sirius. "I can't stand this anymore,"

"I will go with you." And they left together. 

Jessica went in the common room first, Sirius following her close behind. She was almost going upstairs to change when Sirius got hold of her arms, turned her around and started kissing her, he pressed her against the wall, holding her firmly.

"Sirius, Please let me go. I am all sweaty…," she tried to push him away.

"I don't care," he cut her off and kissed her with even more passion. He tipped his head to the side, kissing her bare neck, his lips felt smooth and firm as it wondered down to her shoulder. Part of Jessica wanted to get in action, but the other kept staring at the common room entrance, fearing someone would walk in, her hands dangled at her side, not active in the activity, it felt awkward, but it was the only way she kept her sanity in this moment.

Sirius got frustrated with her lack of participation and stopped kissing her for a second. He put her arms around him, grabbed her waist pulling her up onto her toes, and started kissing her fiercely. His hands started traveling up her legs under her dress and she felt her body throbbing. Jessica wanted to feel the moment and get into it like he was, but she couldn't.

"Sirius," she said trying to push him away again. "We are in the common room, someone can come in."

"You are right," he broke off. "Lets look for a room."

"What?" she asked outraged.

"Almost all students left, there are bunch of empty dormitories. Lets go find one," he said pulling her, but she did not move.

"I understood what you said the first time."

"So what are you waiting for?" he pulled her hand again but she did not move. "What? Don't you want to?"

"No, it's not that, of course I want," she tried to explain. "But not like this. Not sneaking around, we still at Hogwarts. If you wait we can have a special night together, one that we will remember forever. Not something like this, not in an empty dormitory, with the tension of being caught, I can't possibly relax."

"Jess, I am a guy," he muttered. "How long do you think I can wait?"

"I am not asking for you to wait a long time," she said. "But please, not tonight."

"Okay," he said letting go of her hand. "You can go change. I will wait here so we can get back down together."

"Thank you." But Sirius had already turned his back, she felt awful and for a second she considered taking it all back, but she didn't.

Jessica changed and they went back down together. Sirius was not the same after that. They danced together but he avoided getting too close. James and Lily were not where to be seen and Jessica was sure Lily took the offer Jessica had turned down, that was not helping Sirius mood.

"I am tired, I think I am done for tonight," she told Sirius, but she wasn't telling the truth, she couldn't take seeing Sirius like that anymore.

"Me too, shall we," he smiled and gave his arm so she could hold it, in a poor attempt to fake he was alright.

They kissed goodnight and she went to her dormitory. She laid awake wondering if she did the right thing. Sirius obviously looked miserable, and it hurt Jessica to see him like that.

When she woke up the next morning Lily was not back yet. Assuming James did not spend the night on his dormitory either, Jessica did not want to imagine in what kind of bad mood Sirius was going to be in. She packed her things, got dressed and was about to leave when Lily came in, she looked at Jessica and blushed at once.

"Don't ask," she told Jessica.

"Don't worry I won't," and she left.

Jessica went straight to the boys dormitory to find Sirius. When she came in she saw Remus, Peter and James, who was just starting to pack, confirming her fears that he indeed did not sleep there.

"Sirius already left," said Remus. "Did you guys fight or something? 'Cause he is in an awful mood this morning."

"No we didn't fight. I will go find him and find out what's wrong." But she did know exactly what was wrong.

She tried the Great Hall first, but he wasn't there. Since she was starving she decided to eat before looking for him. She was sure they would get in some kind of argument and would be better if she at least had a full stomach.

When she was leaving the Great Hall, James. Peter, Remus and Lily were coming in.

"Have you found him yet?" Remus asked.

"No."

"Try the grounds," added James.

"I will."

She was heading to the grounds when she heard a low voice speak to her ear.

"May I have a word?" the familiar voice asked, it was Severus. His hand was on her back, leading her to a room. She got hold of her wand and held it tightly.

"No need for wands, I am in a friendly matter today," he said when they finally got in an empty room. It was an odd classroom, it was narrow and long and there was a door in the other side.

"I didn't see you at the dance, I thought you were gone," she said putting her wand away.

"I was gone, but I had to come back, I knew I had to speak with you once more and I have no idea where to find you after today."

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Stay away from the Order," he said.

"I am not going over this again," she said rolling her eyes. "I am fighting him Severus, you won't change my mind. I am not joining him."

"That is not what I am asking. I respect your decision of not joining him. But I do not what you to get on his way," he explained.

"But I have to," said Jessica crisply "I know that is what I am supposed to be doing."

"Do you really?" this question bugged her, brought doubts to her mind almost instantly. "I've been talking with Lily."

"You talked with her?"

"Yes, a lot. We kept it a secret. She didn't want James to know, or you. She was afraid you may not like it. The point is, she told me about the centaurs."

"She told you?" she asked.

He nodded. "I am glad she did, because that is why I know you can't get on his way now."

"What are you talking about?" she said irritably. "I don't know what Lily told you but what the centaur told me it's the prove that I will fight against him."

"That is exactly why I knew I had to talk with you. You are not getting this right. Didn't he say you were going to assist the only one that will be able to defeat the Dark Lord?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied.

"And didn't he say the wasn't born yet?"

"Yes…" she knew where Severus was going, and he was right.

"The Order does not stand a change against him, not now. He is too strong; he has many followers, probably twice the number of members in the Order. I promised Lily I will try to keep her safe, as much as I can, because she made her mind, she is joining the Order even if she dies for it. And I will watch your back if I have to, but I hope you won't get on the Dark Lord's way. I know you have to live through this."

"You can't take a centaur seriously, Severus," she said weakly. "They tell the future by looking at stars and planets."

"They are very accurate, they get it right, believe me," he said

"Severus you don't have to put yourself in danger to watch my and Lily's back, we will be okay."

"I do this because I care." He fell silent for a moment. "Seeing you and Sirius together is killing me." He moved closer. "He does not deserve you." He ran his finger through her hair. Her heart was racing. Severus never, ever got this close. "Promise me you will take care, and please, think about what I just said."

She nodded. He kissed her, softy on her lips, more like a friendly kiss goodbye, nothing romantically about it.

"Severus, please don't join him," she whispered to his ears giving him a hug.

"It's too late for that," he gently pulled his sleeve up reveling a tattoo all death eaters had, a skull with a snake coming out of it's mouth.

"I care about you too. I don't what to hurt you in anyway," she said softly.

"It's too late for that too." He stepped back, Jessica heart was breaking in millions of pieces.

"Please, don't do this." She tried to reach his hand but he stepped back again.

"I got to go, and if you decide to join the Order, the moment I walk out the door we will be enemies, mortal enemies. I don't want to fight you."

"Severus please…." He walked away, towards the door on the far end. She sank on the floor and started crying softly. Sirius came in, at the door near her. He looked at her then at Severus, who broke unto a run.

"What did he do to you?" He got his wand out, but Severs was already out the door. He knelt by her and asked again. "What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything," she said sobbing softly.

"Of course he did, you are sobbing. Please tell me."

She stopped crying and told him everything Severus said.

Sirius broke into a laugh. "He actually said that?" his lack of understanding made Jessica frustrated. "Of course he doesn't want you to join the Order, he knows you are brilliant and has great potential, he doesn't want to fight against you, he is afraid. I can't believe you took him seriously." He laughed again. "Stop crying. He is nothing but a coward."

"He it's not a coward," she snapped at once. "Don't call him that. He cares about me."

"Yes, I saw how much he cares about you when he called you a mud-blood," he added.

"How dare you," she thundered. Jessica was furious now, she stood up. "For your information I care about him too."

"What it's that supposed to mean?" he stood up too.

She did not want to fight with him, so the calmed down and said in a really soft voice. "It's just that we are friends for years now and I cared for him for a long time."

"So you are trying to say you care more about him than me?" he asked angry.

"Sirius, please don't do this. This has nothing to do with you."

"Why don't you answer my question?" he was screaming now, she started crying again. "Answer me Jessica." He was even louder.

"It' just that, I cared for him for much longer," she said in between sobs. "We have been friends since your first year, and you and I are together for just a few months…"

"I can't believe you." He had a disgusting look on his face. "WHY DON'T YOU GO AFTER HIM THEN, IF YOU CARE THAT MUCH, GO FIND HIM," he roared.

"Sirius I was not done speaking," she tried say.

"I am," he said kicking a chair near him. "I don't want to hear more, see you around Jessica. Have a great life." He turned around going to the door.

"Please don't…" but he was gone. She sank on the floor again and sobbed harder then before.

Not long after that Lily came in to the room panting.

"Thank… goodness…. I found you… I just saw Sirius… and… and… Oh, Jess… I am so sorry." She didn't say anything else, just knelt down by her and gave her a warm hug. After a while she said, "Lets go, the train it's almost leaving."

Lily helped Jessica up and they went down the road that leads to the Hogsmeade Station.

"Lily, I am sorry I can't go."

"Nonsense Jess," Lily said pulling Jessica's hand. "It will do you good. Sirius it's already gone anyway, he is not riding with us."

They were getting closer and closer, all of a sudden Jessica said. "I am really sorry." And she disapparated, she heard Lily's voice fading in the distance. "Jess, no…." and she was gone. A second later Jessica was standing in her bedroom. She looked around and collapsed on her bed, crying harder than ever before. Someone came in, but she didn't look to see who it was.

"Sweetie," it was her mom. "What happened? I thought we were suppose to pick you up at King's Cross. What's wrong?"

Jessica cried a little louder.

"Is it Sirius?" he mom asked

Jessica nodded, her head was buried on her pillow.

"I am so sorry." Her mom ran her hands on her back. "When you feel ready to talk, call me."

But was a matter of fact Jessica did not feel like talking. She didn't eat lunch or dinner. Her mom came in every hour or so asked if she was alright, if she needed anything then left again. After a couple of hour she stopped crying and was left alone with her thoughts. "What now?", "What's next?", "Is Sirius ever going to forgive her?", "Is it really the end?" And she went on like that all afternoon.


	13. Chapter 13

Next morning she decided to get out of bed and carry on with her life. Her family was in shock when she turned up ready and dressed for breakfast. She told them what happened the day before.

"So he broke off just like that?" her mom asked, she nodded.

"That is quite immature you know?" her dad said, she threw an angry look at him, and he quickly added. "Sorry. So tell me about this Voldemort, the one Severus told you to stay away."

She told them everything she knew, by the time she was done, her mom had a horrified look, and her dad was no different.

"I think this Severus is right," her mom said with a trembling voice. "If Voldemort it's this dangerous you should stay away, that proves to me that this Severus friend of yours really cares about you."

She did not want to discuss this, because she had not decided if she was joining the Order or not. "Dad can I borrow the car? I have a job interview."

"What job?" she explained what was the position she was interviewing for.

"That sounds exciting," her dad said blissfully. "You just drop me off at work, and you can keep the car."

"Do you need me to pick you up?"

"No, I can ride back with someone."

"Thanks dad."

They left right after breakfast. Jessica drove her dad to work, then drove to the Ministry. She felt silly driving a muggle car to her interview, but she decided to do it because driving was like therapy to her, it calmed her down. She parked and went in through the visitors entrance. She felt a bit strange going inside an old out of use telephone box.

She was told by the receptionist to take the lift and go to level nine, it was the lowest level in the Ministry. When the elevator stopped on level nine, after stopping in every floor, Jessica faced a rather different looking corridor, totally different from every other floor she stopped. This one was simple and bare corridor that lead to a single black door.

Jessica went in and saw a circular room with twelve doors, all of them were black with no handles.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" She looked around, with no idea which door to take.

After giving some thought she decided to try one of them.

"Alohomora," the door opened. She stepped in a room full of clocks and with a beautiful, dancing, diamond sparkling light. "I don't think I am supposed to be here." She quickly went back to the circular room.

As soon as she closed the door the walls of the room revolved rapidly, it was impossible to tell which one she had just gone in.

"Great. If this is part of the interview I probably won't get the job," she said to herself.   
Right after she finished the sentence a door opened.

"There you are, the front desk told me you were coming." It was Mr. Brisson, she felt relieved.

She followed him. "I am sorry I didn't send am owl ahead, I didn't have one at home, and I wanted to come today. If you are busy I can come back another day."

"No, it's not a problem." They stepped in another room with a single door again, he got a key chain of his pocket and opened the door, that lead them to a space full of individual offices. "This is my office, step in and have a seat."

"Thank you."

"Well, welcome to the Department of Mysteries. And as you can see it's full of mysteries and secrets. And with you accept my offer you will know all of them. Are you ready to hear what I have in mind?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know what an Unspeakable is?" he asked.

"It's someone that works in this department, doing top secret work, probably studying and solving mysteries, I think the department names says it all."

"Right you are," he said with a joyful smile. "And that is the position I have to offer. But, I am having a hard time finding someone to do the work."

"Why is that sir?"

"Because it's an extremely demanding job. I need someone the take on a series of mysteries all over the world. Since they have certain urgency, as soon one it's done, you go straight to the next one. It will take you at least couple of years."

"And why no one wants the job? It sounds exciting."

"Because you will need to go alone," sad Brisson mysteriously. "No contact with the wizardry world what so ever, you will be in a different disguise in every mission, and most of them will be as a muggle. That is why I need you. You can mingle right in with them."

Her heart was racing now, no contact with the wizardry world? She couldn't take the job.

"I understand you have friends and a boyfriend too," he went on, "And it will mean a great deal to leave them behind, but it won't be for long. If you think you can stand being apart from them, I would advice you to take the job. This is a once in a life time opportunity, one that most of the freshly graduated Hogwarts students would kill for."

A rather skinny woman came in. "We need you for a second Mr. Brisson." He stood up.

"I will be right back."

It was a nice break, she needed to think. So if she got the job would kill all possibilities of her and Sirius coming back together, but she was so sudden it was over. She knew Lily and her family were going to be okay with it, two years wasn't a whole lot. The only thing holding her back was her desire the fight Voldemort. Severus words came to her mind. "_You are to assist the one that will destroy him, he is not born yet, stay away._"

The door opened and Mr. Brisson came in. "I am so sorry something came up, I need to go. I can give a few days to think about it…"

"I will take the job," she suddenly said.

"You will?" he asked surprised.

"Yes," she said with conviction.

"Oh, my dear," he came and started shaking her hands. "Welcome, welcome. You won't regret it. I need to go now, let me help you to the elevator."

"When do I start?" she asked when they got to the circular room.

"Lets see," he gave it a thought. "How about in a month, that will give you some time to spend with your friends and family. Then you will be training for about three months, after that its top secret."

"Thank you sir."

"So see you back in a month and I will show you around. Bye." He said when the elevator door was already closing.

The rest of the day Jessica pretended she was doing fine, that she was happy and enjoying her new career. But the truth was, she was feeling sad inside, the thought that she wasn't going to be with Sirius anymore was killing her slowly. Before dinner she just told her parents she was tired and was going to go lay down. Willy was really disappointed because Jessica did not spend time with him.

She laid on her bed staring at the ceiling, not moving, not even thinking about anything, she felt empty. She heard the door bell ring and nothing else. After about what seemed to be half an hour she heard someone coming upstairs. Someone knocked.

"Come in," she said with a bored voice.

The person came in, she didn't even look to see who it was.

"Jess, can I talk to you?" It was Sirius, Jessica didn't say anything just turned around and faced the wall near her. She couldn't help to feel angry at him.

"Okay, I deserve that," he said, and then paused for a few seconds. "I wanted to come earlier but I was busy, I joined the Order today, so did Lily, James, Remus and Peter." She didn't say anything. "Lily called you yesterday, your mom told her you needed to be alone." More silence. "So if you are not going to talk, at least hear what I have to say." He waited again, she didn't say anything. "Okay, I am sorry, I know I can be a bit of a jerk sometimes and I admit I was a jerk. So that's that. What do you say?"

"Fine." She didn't say anything else, and kept staring at the wall.

"Uh, I probably deserve that too. The truth is, that I love you and I want to be with you. I want to be by your side for the rest of my life. I am miserable without you, and you already know that, for all I know you feel the same way I do. I promise never to fight with you again, ever. I just want to be with you. Please tell me you still feel the same way."

She started crying, hard really hard.

"Is that a no Jess?" he said fearful.

"No, it's not that." She sat up fighting back her tears. "Sirius I got the job at the Department of Mysteries today."

"Really? That is great news." He paused. "Wait, why are you crying then?"

"The job they want me to do, its top secret…"

"It's okay you don't need to tell me what you are working on," he said kindly.

"Sirius, please, let me finish," she said, wiping her eyes. "You never let me finish."

"Sorry," he said quickly.

"They want me to go alone, to be undercover the whole time. I will have no any contact with the wizardry world," she let out a small sob. "I will be in training for three months, and then, I will be gone."

He froze, sinking into Jessica's bed, he stared at the floor for a long time. "How long?"

"About two years, or till I am done, sorry." She was still crying. There was another long silence.

"Jess, we can still be together," he finally said. "Two years it's not long. I can wait."

Jessica stopped crying, and gave a shy smile. "Really?"

"With one condition."

"What's that?" she asked.

"Come live with me," he replied

"What?"

"I am going to by a house, help me find one, and let's buy it together, and move in. If we have just three months before you leave, I want to make the most out of it. So what do you say?"

She thought for a moment and didn't find a reason not to go with him. "Okay," she agreed.

"Will you come?" he asked.

"Yes," she gave him a big wide smile.

"Thank you," he pulled her into his lap, and they started kissing. Jessica got the urge to feel his warmth so she slid her hands under his shirt, going up and feeling his chest. Sirius moved to her neck kissing her collarbone with devotion. Jessica moved her hands around either side of his waist and crawled her fingernails to his back, she was craving him, her self-control vanished.

Sirius lifted his head and their gaze met, they smiled at each other. Without a word she pulled his shirt off, he rolled her onto the bed and climbed on top of her. His skin felt hot to the tough, and a little damp, and she loved it. Sirius nibbled at her earlobe and starting moving down, kissing every inch of her skin, he slipped her shirt off her shoulder and she felt his labored breath washing her skin.

"Aaaahhh," they heard a scream, someone came in the bedroom without knocking. It was her mom. Sirius jumped up, putting his shirt back on. "For goodness sake, your dad could've walked in on you."

"I am so sorry, Mrs. Thompson." Sirius was already off the bed with his shirt on. "I swear we didn't plan to…"

"This is my house and I want to see some respect." She was furious. "You have an eight years old brother Jessica, and if it was him coming in not me? Did you think about that?"

"No, I am sorry mom," she said scrambling to her feet. "I wasn't thinking at all."

"Clearly," Lydia snapped. "Now, dinner is ready." She turned around. "And if you have time, close your buttons."

Jessica looked down and she had three of her shirt buttons open; she quickly closed them before her mom went out the door. As soon as was gone Sirius started laughing.

"Why are you laughing? It's not funny," fixing her hair, pulling it up on a pony tail.

"You so like me," he sang

"Oh, shut up." She went out the door and he followed.

Dinner was alright, Mrs. Thompson was totally fine by the time they were done. Mr. Thompson said at least ten times he was glad they were back together.

"I am buying a house, you know," said Sirius, trying to get to the topic he was waiting all night.

"Yes, he will start looking for one tomorrow." Jessica added. "I am coming with him."

"I see you haven't made up with your mom," said Mr. Thompson.

"And I never will. I heard from my cousin that I am even out of the family tree and everything, but she is too, married a muggle born. I don't care, Jessica made me realize it's their loss not mine."

"And she is right," added Mrs. Thompson. "And what kind of house are you looking for?"

"Not too big," Sirius started. "I thought about three bedrooms. Nothing to small though. Because when we decide to start a family we don't need to move again."

Mrs. Thompson dropped the cup she was holding. Mr. Thompson had one eyebrow raised. "We?" he said with a shaky voice.

"Mom, dad, I am going with him," Jessica finally said.

Willy stood up and ran for the door.

"Willy wait, what is the matter?" Jessica cried.

"What is the matter? I will tell you what is the matter." He walked towards them. "You were gone for seven years. Do you even know how hard it was for me not having you around all year? Then you come home today and said you were going to be gone for another two years. But I thought, _it's okay at least we will have three months together. _And now you are telling me you are not even staying, you are going to be gone again." His voice broke, and soft tears came down his cheek.

"Willy," Sirius called, standing up and putting his arms around him. "Do you know why I said three bedrooms?"

"No."

"Because one of them will be for you, only you. I want you to come stay with us when you want, doesn't matter how long you want to stay, our house it's always open for you. You will have to ask your parents first, of course."

Willy looked at his mom, her hand was covering her mouth, and she nodded.

"Thank you." Willy said giving Sirius a big hug. "I am still going upstairs, but I am not mad anymore."

"Good." Sirius went and sat by Jessica again.

"That is why I love you." She kissed the hand that he raised to run on her hair. "Mom, is it okay if Sirius spends the night?"

"Yes if he stays in the guest room, all night."

"Of course, I knew that," she said at once.

"Am I missing something?" her dad asked.

"Of course not dear," said Lydia calmly. "Just making sure they still know the rules."


	14. Chapter 14

It wasn't hard for Sirius and Jessica to find the house they wanted. They found a little house in the country and on Sirius eyes it was perfect, but Jessica thought it needed a bit of work, but both agreed it was the house for them. It had two levels with three bedrooms in the upstairs and a living area, kitchen and a small office in the downstairs.

"I can already see all your books here," said Sirius when they saw the office for the first time.

It wasn't hard to get the furniture , the Potters and the Thompsons gave them the bigger stuff and Jessica and Sirius were left with all the minor things and decoration details.

The month flew by and soon Jessica and Sirius got extremely busy, Jessica with her training and Sirius with the Order. It was a bit awkward that none of them mentioned work when they finally got together in the end of the day. It was part of the plan and so far it working very well.

Willy did indeed come and visit often, every weekend he would come to stay, and then Denise would meet them outside the Ministry to take him home Monday morning. Jessica and Sirius hanged out with James and Lily almost every night. 

Living with Sirius was better than Jessica expected. Sirius really meant when he said they wouldn't fight anymore, since Jessica moved in they didn't have any arguments, not even one. It was great coming home to Sirius, Jessica was always greeted well. She did not want it to end.

One day she got home and Sirius had an unusual smile on his face.

"What is it Sirius?" she asked.

"Look out the window."

She considered for a second, and then looked out of the window. It was dark outside but she could see something sitting on the driveway. "Is that a…" she looked at him "… a motorcycle?"

He nodded and joined her by the window to take a look too. "Isn't great?"

"Why do you need a motorcycle?"

"To get around, of course," he plainly said.

"We can apparate Sirius," she joked.

"I know but that is no fun, come I'll take you for a ride."

"Okay." She was actually excited to give it a try, she never rode in a motorcycle before.

They got on and Sirius asked, "Are you ready?" Turning it on, before they drove ten feet the front wheel lifted off the ground. Jessica held on tighter.

"This thing can fly?"

"Of course it can," he said surprised. "Did you thing I was getting around by land?"

It was a great ride, the view was beautiful. Sirius was right, ridding was better then apparating. They had a great time, after a couple of hours they landed back on their driveway.

After dinner Sirius sat by the fireplace in the living area and became really quiet.

"Is something wrong, sweetie?" Jessica asked sitting by him.

"We had a tough day at the Order today." It was the first time he said something about his work in the Order.

"I am sorry." But he didn't say anything. "I thought we were going to see Lily and James tonight."

Sirius stood up and walked closer to the fireplace, putting one hand on the wall in front of him. "We won't be able to see them for couple of weeks," he finally added.

"Why? What's wrong? Are they okay?"

"They are fine." Sirius turned to her again, and knelt down on front of her. "Jess, they faced Voldemort today for the first time."

"What?" she was in shock. "Are you sure they are fine?"

"They escaped without a scratch."

"Why can't we go see them?"

"I can't tell you everything, but lets say they got to Voldemort nerves," he said resting his head on her knees. "Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea for them to stay in hiding for couple of weeks."

"And you don't know where they are?" asked Jessica, running her finger through his thick black hair.

"No, Dumbledore is the only one that knows. I wish I knew," he said quietly.

"Me too." 

"If something happened to them I would never forgive myself," he said after a moment of silence.

"It was not your fault," said Jessica kindly.

"I was supposed to be with them," he told her. "But I heard about this motorcycle deal and James told me to go get it, and I did. I should've not done it."

"I am sure no one blames you for not being there." Jessica gave him a hug

"I know, but my conscience does," he sat by her.

"I have a way of getting your conscience somewhere else," she said, while sitting on his lap.

"Do you really?" he said with a smile.

She nodded and started kissing him. As the night went on, Jessica made Sirius forget about his problems.

After Lily and James came off hiding Sirius and Jessica spend even more time with them, both realized they were not safe and made the most of the little time Jessica had left with them. Lily and James were now debating when they would get married. Lily wanted to get married right a way so Jessica could be her bridesmaid and James wanted to wait till December. Jessica told them that she would not be upset if they decided to get married in December and that she thought it was a good idea.

Jessica didn't even see the three months get by, it went so fast, she knew she was going to leave any day now. Mr. Brisson didn't say a day, just that could be anytime. The training she got was unreal. She was master in Legilimency and Occlumency, Mr. Brisson taught her himself. She had to learn seven languages, just the basics for each of them. She went up to a level of potion making that would make Severus really jealous, her dark arts skills were scary, even for her, she didn't think she was going to be that good at it, she hated practicing the Unforgivable Curses over and over again on bugs, she thought it was cruel, but her boss made sure to cheer her up every time he had a chance.

"I never seen curses like yours, they are very strong, considering you just learned them," said Mr. Brisson.

"I hope I never have to use them," she muttered.

"We all do dear," he said

"Did you ever have to use one of them?"

"Oh, Jessica, I am afraid I have," he said thoughtfully. "You see, you will learn soon enough that some times the jobs we have to do don't qualify as fun."

She did not like the sound of that. "Sir, do you have an idea in when I will be leaving?"

"As a matter of fact, I do, that is why I came to talk to you." He sat across from her table. "I was thinking next Monday. That is a week from now. I thought it would give you enough time to prepare and enjoy your friends and family before you go."

Her heart was racing, it was finally here, technically she was prepared, but she was having a hard time on her emotional side. Things were going so good between Sirius and her that she definitely did not want to leave now. After her long silence Mr. Brisson spoke again.

"Is there a problem? Did you change your mind?"

"No, of course not," she snapped out of her silence. "Still want to go, but it's hard anyway. When will you tell me about what am I supposed to do?"

"Not until Monday. You will come in like you do everyday and then I will give instructions and you will apparate to your first post."

"Okay," she said felling excited and curious.

"You can go for today," he said with a smile.

"But sir, it's only three o'clock," she said checking her watch.

"I know," he said going out of the door. "You will need couple of extra hours to tell everyone you are living in one week."

"Thanks. See you tomorrow then."

When she got home Sirius wasn't there, she figured since he didn't know she was coming early he was still doing Order work. She decided to go to her moms instead. Her dad wasn't home either, and Willy was still in school. So she had a nice talk with her mom. After two hours she told her mom she was going back to meet Sirius and come back later to tell her dad and Willy that she was leaving.

Just as she expected Sirius was waiting for her when she got there.

"Hi, honey," he said enthusiastically. "How was work?"

"It was good, I was off couple of hours early today," she said greeting him with a kiss. "But you weren't here so I went to my moms."

"Why did he let you go early today…" he froze and looked at her. "You know when you are leaving, don't you?"

"Yes, it's next Monday." The silence that followed made Jessica realize Sirius wasn't going to take the news as smoothly as she thought or wanted.

"Jess and if I tell you," he started carefully. "I can disguise myself in such a way that no one will recognize me, will you let me go with you?"

"Sirius we went over this already, I will have to go alone."

"I am just giving you a choice, I could go with you and no one would ever know," he sounded a little bit mad when he said that.

"That would be reckless," she said firmly. "I can't let you come with me."

"Did you stop to think how hard it will be for me to be left behind, without you?" he went to the front door, his voice was definitely louder when he spoke again. "I don't know if I can do this, okay? I need to think for a little bit." He left, slamming the door, seconds later she heard his motorcycle setting off.

That was exactly what she was afraid of. Things were going in such a way between the two of them that she did not want this day to arrive. But it did, and the only thing she was left with, was hope. Hope that Sirius would come around and get over this before she left. She wrote a note saying "Gone to my parents." In case Sirius came back before she did, then wrote another one to Lily.

I am at my parents. I have important news. Meet me there.

Jessica.

She gave the letter to Sirius owl and it flew away. A minute later she was at her parents' living room. They were happy to see her and even Willy was excited about her news.

"Where is Sirius?" her dad asked.

"He didn't take the news as easy as you guys did," she said gloomily.

"Oh, I thought he wouldn't. It must be really hard on him," her mom added.

"It's hard for both of us mom," Jessica snapped. "I need him, and he is gone, He is supposed to be by my side now."

"Oh yes, but try to put yourself in his shoes, he will be all alone in a house that both of you made your home. He could even go mad in there," Mrs. Thompson stopped talking because they heard someone apparating in the living room. It was Lily and James.

"Did they give you a date Jess?" Lilly said quickly.

"Yes Lily, I leave a week from today."

"And where it's Sirius?" James asked. "He should be here, with you."

Mrs. Thompson twisted her nose when James said that. Jessica said "He will come around."

The rest of the night they talked and tried to guess what kind of things she was going to do while she was gone.

"You never know maybe I will be back in one year," said Jessica while Lily and James were getting ready to leave. "Brisson said I can come back as soon as I am done."

"I am so sorry we are not getting married before you go," said Lily giving her a hug.

"It's fine, just be sure to take lots of pictures so I can enjoy them with you when I am back."

"I will." And they left.

"Mom, dad do you mind if I spend the night?" Jessica asked.

"Of course we don't mind," her dad said. "This is still your house."

"I think you shouldn't," her mom said. "In case Sirius comes home, he will need you tonight, you guys need to talk."

"Mom, it's impossible to have a civilized conversation with Sirius when he is mad," said Jessica. "He needs space and I will give him some."

Jessica ignored the disapproval look on her moms face and went upstairs. Before long she was asleep. It was a long emotional day after all.


	15. Chapter 15

Next morning Jessica went to work like a normal day, Sirius was always in her mind, all day long, it was really hard to concentrate. She knew he'd come around, but hoped it would be soon. When the day was over she decided to stop by their house to see if Sirius was back yet. As her kitchen appeared before her eye she saw Sirius sitting on the table already waiting for her.

She waited to see if he would say something. But he didn't, he was looking down and that way he stayed.

"I am sorry," she finally said.

He stood up and walked away, stopped at the kitchen door and looked at her. His eyes were watery, "I am hurting, really bad, and the best you can come up with is I am sorry?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"Something that will make me feel better," he implored.

"I can't ask you to go with me Sirius…"

He turned his back again, ready to leave, Jessica thoughts were running fast, then she finally said. "I love you Sirius." He froze, but didn't turn around, she went on, "If I could I would stay here with you, living with you made me realize I can't live without you." She started walking towards him, trying to get closer. "I'd like to think two years will pass fast but even so, my heart breaks every time I think it will be two years without you." She was inches away from him. "I will love you forever, you know that. Doesn't matter where I am or how far apart we are."

Next thing she knew, Sirius was hugging her, he was crying, something she didn't expect him to do, she felt his tears rolling her neck.

"I love you too. I will miss you so bad," he said. He never hugged her like that, it was so tight, for a moment or two it even hurt a bit, but she didn't care.

"I know, I will miss you the same." Now she was dropping her own fair of tears, for the first time since she heard she was leaving. "We need to talk."

"Yes we do," he pulled her by the hand and they sat in the living room.

"What will be the hardest thing for you when I go?"

"Not having you around," he said. "When I come home there will be nothing to look forward to. When I go to sleep at night there will be no one for me to hold. I will miss you, your smile, your kiss, your touch."

"That is what I thought you would say," she said.

"You know me to well."

"I guess I do. Sirius I had a lot of time to think last night. And I want to tell you what I came up with, but I don't want you to get mad. If you disagree just say so and that will be the end of it."

"Sounds fair," he said with a curious look. "Go ahead."

"I was thinking about moving back to my parents tonight. Getting all my stuff out of your way, so they won't be a constant reminder of me. Plus you will get used to me not being around all the time, at night and all."

He leaned forward resting his head on both hands. Jessica had the feeling he was calming himself, so he would not scream at her.

"Tell you what," he finally broke the silence, "I don't want you to take all your stuff out of here, you will already be in my mind in all times, having your things around will actually help me, it will be a comfort because it will remind me everyday that you are coming back."

"Okay, my stuff is staying here then," she agreed.

"As for you going back to your folks is not a bad idea, I can start getting in the mood of not having you around."

"Really?" she said surprised, this was the part she was almost sure he wouldn't agree. "Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah, I think I am," he said giving it a second thought. "With one condition," he said.

"And what is that?"

"You are going tomorrow. Tonight you are all mine, and I am not sharing."

She laughed. "Deal." She kissed him.

"Are you hungry?" he asked.

"Starving."

"Race you to the kitchen." He broke off into a run.

"Sirius you are such a kid some times." She followed, not running, but walking and laughing.

Jessica wanted the week to go really slow, but once again it went by faster than she wanted. Mr. Brisson was making her work really hard, some times even keeping her after hours, but she didn't dare to complain. She was sleeping at her parents house, but that did not keep Sirius away a bit, he would stay till late night and come back early in the morning, some times even before Jessica was awake he would crawl into her bed and wait until she woke up. Other then that Sirius was doing really well handling Jessica's last days around.

Saturday night the Potter's wanted to throw her a "go away party" that Jessica found unnecessary but let them do it anyway. In the end it turned out to be a lot of fun, it was the perfect evening with all her closest friends.

Sunday was her family time. As usual they gathered at her grandmothers' house, and her whole family came to wish her good luck. Although Sirius was having a harder time by the end of the evening, Jessica thought he was doing a pretty good job hanging out with her family. The drive home was really awkward; it was silent almost all the way. Jessica parents didn't say a word and she was sure it finally hit them that she was leaving in the morning. Same with Sirius, he held her tight around her shoulders to the point that is was a bit uncomfortable, as for Willy, he held her hand the whole way, Jessica thought she saw a few tears rolling down his face, but he was quick wiping them out, so she wasn't sure if he was crying or not.

When they parked the car on the driveway they were all surprised to find a man sitting by the door way, his was looking down so no one recognized him.

"Mom, dad, who is he?" Jessica asked. She had an uneasy feeling about the strange man sitting in the dark all alone.

"I have no idea," her dad replied. "Are you sure he is not a friend of yours?"

She was about to say "yes" when Sirius jumped out of the car with his wand aiming at the stranger.

"You better run before I get to you," Sirius said rather loudly. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he bellowed. Then he said with a mock voice, "I hoped I'd be the one to send you to Azkaban."

The stranger stood up with a horrified look on his face, just then Jessica recognized the man.

"Severus? What are you doing here?" Jessica came forward, but Severus didn't even look at her, he was staring at Sirius who had his wand between Severus eyes. "Sirius put you wand down, he won't do anything."

Sirius lowered the wand at once, but they were still staring at each other, with a hatred look on their eyes. 

"Riding in a muggle car?" Severus finally said, coldly. "You surprise me everyday Black, when I think you are at you lowest point, you prove me wrong and sink a bit more."

Sirius aimed his wand at Severus again, but this time Severus was fast enough to aim his too, both had their wand pressed on each other chest. Jessica jumped right between them.

"Jess, step way," Sirius barked. "Let me have him."

"Don't flatter yourself Black, I can finish you with my eyes closed now," Severus said lazily.

"Severus shut up." Jessica finally lost her temper. "Now in case you haven't noticed it we are in a muggle town, now put your wand away right a way. If you have something to say Severus, say it now or good night."

They put their wands away and Severus said, "I wanted to say bye before you left tomorrow."

"She doesn't care for you goodbye, and she doesn't associate with death eaters." Sirius said grinning his teeth at Severus.

"Sirius, shhhh," Jessica snapped at him. "How do you know I leave tomorrow?"

Severus face was pale, he thought a second and said, "I need to talk to you in private."

"Not to worry, we will go inside and you two and chat outside," said Mr. Thompson cutting in the conversation. "Sirius you too," Sirius followed the family without questioning.

"Don't try anything funny," Sirius told Severus before going in.

"Why did you come here Severus?" she asked when the door closed.

"To say goodbye," he said it again.

"You told me that already," she knew him well, and was sure he had more to say. "What else do you want?"

"Alright, first I am really glad you are going away and not getting in the Dark Lords way like I told you. He already keeps close watch on you, and I am glad you haven't given him any reasons to suspect you," he said.

"Me going away has nothing to do with you… Wait… Why is Voldemort keeping a watch on me? Did you tell him about the centaurs?"

"Don't say his name," he said very fast. "And I didn't tell him about the centaurs, and if I did, it would be reason enough for him to come after you, and finish you."

"Why is he watching me then?" she asked.

"Not sure," he said lowering his voice, in almost a whisper. "But I think he is suspicious of you. All your friends joined the Order and you were the only one that didn't, I guess he is just keeping a watch on you just to make sure you don't try anything funny."

This scared her a bit, the thought that she was being watched without knowing was terrifying.

"You don't have to worry about it anymore." Severus went on, when he realized she did not like what he was saying. "I don't think he will be able to track you down after tomorrow, and he knows that your job is so deep undercover that it will be almost impossible to find you."

"How does he know that I am leaving? and what kind of work I am doing?" she asked again.

"All I have to say is, don't trust the people around you. He has spies everywhere. Almost all departments in ministry feed him information, including yours. Even the Order has a spy."

"This is awful," she gasped. "You need to tell me their names."

"I can't, I don't know who they are. The Dark Lord keeps this kind of information very private."

Jessica couldn't say anything else after that, she was trying to sink in everything she heard. Severus didn't speak either.

"Aren't you going to get in trouble for telling me all this?" she finally broke the silence.

"No, he can't find out," he said cleverly. "I grew quite an expert in blocking people out of my mind, including him," he explained.

"Really, this is awesome. I learned it too," she told him.

"I guess the Dark Lord is right to keep an eye on you," said Snape with a smile.

"Look, Severus. I need to go in," she didn't want this meeting to be too long, because she knew it would make Sirius mad. "Thank you for coming to see me."

"Not a problem, it was pretty hard to find out where your parents live."

"How did you find out?" She was very curious.

"I got it out of another Death Eaters mind when he was distracted."

"Legilimency too?" she asked surprised.

"Oh yes. Almost mastered it."

"Me too. Can I assume the Death Eater was watching me?"

"That would be a safe guess," he replied.

"You guys are all freaks." Jessica tried to make fun of the situation. "So aren't you afraid someone is watching me right now, with you."

"No, they lost you when you left to your grandma. They won't spy on you until you are back from your little trip."

"Bye Severus. Take care." She gave him a little hug.

"I will, if you do the same."

"Thank you for coming by." She went in the door and Sirius was a few inches behind it. "I knew you were listening to every word he was saying."

"I tried, but that geek blocked me out or something, I couldn't hear a word. So what did he say?"

Jessica told him everything word by word. "Did you know that the Order has a spy?" she asked.

"Dumbledore suspects someone is feeding Voldemort information, but he wasn't sure. After I tell him that, he will know for sure."

"Make sure you tell Dumbledore and no one else. You don't want the spy to know where the information came from. That would put me, you and Severus in danger. Do you believe they are following me?"

"Oh yes, at least I will have to agree with Severus on this one, Voldemort knows you are brilliant and he is wondering why you are not fighting him, like your friends."

"This is really creepy," she said.

"Yes it is, but you don't have to worry about it anymore. Your parents and Willy already went to bed. We should do the same."

"We?"

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, your dad told me to spend the night. And he added he doesn't mind if we share a room," he explained.

The news sounded great on Jessica ears, and they didn't spend another minute down stairs, but hurried to her room.

Next morning during breakfast everybody was rather talkative. Jessica was glad he last hours with her family wasn't sad and awkward like the car drive last night.

When it was time for her to go they gathered in the living said goodbyes followed by rather long hugs. Jessica and Sirius apparated together at the Ministry lobby. They went down the elevator together.

"This is it." Jessica said was they went out of the elevator. "They won't let you go in."

"I know" he hugged her really tightly. "I will really miss you."

"I will miss you too," she said. They kissed for a very long time. "Are you scared?"

"Of what?" Sirius asked.

"That things won't be the same when I come back," she answered.

"No, are you?"

"Yes, I am scared things will change and we won't be able to be together anymore," she said.

"Are you going to change?"

"Yes, but not my feelings for you, I will still love you when I come back."

"Same here, my feeling won't die. And I will be right here to welcome you back with open arms," he said and gave her another hug.

"Thanks, I needed to hear that," she said trying not to cry. "Promise me you will be safe Sirius?"

"Always, for you and our love. I got you something." He got his hands out of his pocket and showed her a ring. It looked a lot like a wedding band. "Wait, is not what you are thinking, I am not proposing, yet." He took her by the right hand and put the ring on her finger. "This is so you remember that when you come back I will want to marry you, I have one for myself too."

She lost it and started crying. "Sirius is beautiful, I have no words, thank you."

"I don't want to get you late, you can go now and come back to my arms as soon as you can," he said, giving her one last hug.

"I will, you know that. I need to go."

"I know. I love you Jessica Thompson."

"I love you too."

They kissed one last time and she turned way, not knowing what the future had in store for her.

THE END... To be continued!!!


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